Mastering Chemistry
by ActionBitch
Summary: Obtaining a higher education in Chemistry is a grueling process. It becomes nearly impossible when the Master's student of a research lab is chaotic and masochistic. Naraku is used to new lab assistants running away, but the new one shrugs most of his torments away. His harassing ways turn darker once he dives deeper into his research and he's dragging the new assistant with him.
1. A Challenger Appears

**A Challenger Appears**

Author's Note – No, I didn't die.

He refrained from making a face of disgust when he heard the woman's incredibly lame pun. Instead, he stared down at the few glass beakers of solution he had prepared for this demonstration. But still, that pun was painful. She was a teacher and her students were children no older than twelve years, so Naraku knew that she couldn't drop dick jokes or murder puns to them. He inhaled through his nose deeply while tracing the rim of a nearby beaker with his finger, patiently waiting for the teacher to finish her lame speech about "science is everything" and "chemistry is probably the most important science out of all the sciences." He almost opened his mouth to argue that last point. Chemistry was important, yes, but it wasn't the most important branch of science. In his opinion, none of the branches were more important than the other. They all needed each other. Naraku slowly looked up at the ceiling and pushed his hands into his pockets. There was no need to confront her at that point. He was sure they would share some fighting words soon enough.

"Alright. I'm going to hand it off to our host, who has a few little demonstrations set up to show us the fun stuff that chemistry is used for." The teacher stated happily, turning to Naraku and smiling at him while nodding. Naraku covered his mouth with his hand while he yawned, plopping in a couple little capsules and pressing them between his cheeks and teeth. Time to work.

"There are many uses for chemistry, but it mainly comes down to these two things; medicinal uses to keep you addicted and for assisting our dark lord, Cthulhu. I'm going to need two volunteers." Naraku said while holding up two fingers. He avoided eye contact with the teacher. Either she hated these kids and cared not what would happen to them after what he just said or she didn't hear him. It mattered not as two eager boys' hands shot into the air. Naraku waited a moment more and saw a few girls raise their hands, too. He pointed at one of the boys and one of the girls and motioned for them to stand in front of their peers.

"Who likes Halloween?" Naraku asked as he handed the girl the smaller beaker with a solution and the boy the larger beaker. Naraku looked around as most of the class raised their hands, their expressions ranging from happy to curious. There were a few kids who didn't seem to care, but he was going to change their attitudes.

"Good. Now, pour that into his beaker and stir with this," Naraku instructed the girl, handing her a thin glass rod after she poured her solution into the boy's beaker. She began stirring gently, speeding up when the boy made a comment about nothing happening. Naraku smirked. Nothing was going to happen when those two mixed; it was the third chemical that mattered. He took the beaker from the boy and the glass rod from the girl, thanking them and dismissing them. Naraku held the beaker up and could barely contain his laughter.

"This solution is highly corrosive and dangerous, which is why I had you two mix it instead of me. If it touches your skin or clothes, they will melt away." He lied proudly.

"Wait, what? You had them mix something like that without gloves?" the teacher asked, her expression filled with concern.

"Oh, it would have melted the gloves, too. It would be entirely pointless to wear them." Naraku responded nonchalantly.

"Okay, no! Absolutely not! You should be teaching them proper lab safety, too!"

"I'm not their teacher; you are." Naraku figured it was time to "add" that third chemical before she got too brave. In the middle of her heated response, Naraku walked forward and purposely slipped, falling forward and spilling the solution. When his chest hit the wet floor, the thin pouch of the third chemical beneath his shirt burst and mixed, a brilliant red color forming and spilling out from under him. He bit into the capsules in his mouth and let the red liquid drain out of his mouth as he gave the wall a thousand-yard stare. The kids began screaming, all of them rolling and running away from him and pressing against the back wall.

"Oh my God! Out! Out!" the teacher shouted, pushing the kids out the door as she followed them. Naraku heard her screaming for help and figured that was his signal to leave. He quickly stood up and sprinted for the second door, which led to the "secret" hallway that professors used to avoid the rush of students in between class periods.

"I fell a little harder than intended," he said to himself in a low voice, realizing a piece of glass had stuck into his skin through the protective layer of padding he wore underneath his clothes. He plucked the shard out, a smirk pulling its way onto his face.

Once Naraku reached a certain point in the secret hallway, he opened a door and walked through an empty classroom and out into the main hallway. He figured he would grab his notes and his keys and leave the building before his professor heard about this particular "incident." Naraku reached the door and he heard his professor's voice. It was approaching quickly. Naraku rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. His luck ran out. The classrooms were connected to the secret hallway, but the research labs were not. Naraku grabbed the handle of the emergency shower and pulled it down. If he was going to go down, he was going down on his own terms; wet and satisfied.

"What the-oh, it's you. Wait, it's you? Why are you here? You have a presentation you should…what did you do?" the professor's face was reddening with every passing second. He looked down the hallway when he heard the confused screams and sobs of children. Naraku gave his professor a cheeky smile, which he was sure looked incredibly innocent with the fake blood running down his lips and chin.

"I didn't set them on fire, as you requested." Naraku replied, finally noticing the other person standing next to his professor. She was a young woman and she seemed mildly amused with the scene unfolding before her. She even stepped back a little and tried to hide her smile.

"What? Did you set yourself on fire? Was all that screaming because of you?" his professor questioned angrily. Naraku pushed the handle up and waited for the water to stop raining down on him before answering.

"Of course. Who else? Who is she? New lab assistant?" Naraku turned to her and she seemed perturbed that he pulled her into the conversation. Naraku winked at her as he twisted his long black hair into a single thick strand, squeezing out the excess water. The professor groaned while holding his face with both hands.

"Do you have any idea how hard they're going to sue us?" he wailed, his voice muffled by his hands.

"Rock hard, hopefully. That's what I worked for."

"This is all going to fall back on me! You did this in my name!"

"Hi, I'm Naraku." Naraku chirped, extending his hand to the young woman. She stared at his hand for a few seconds, so he wiggled his fingers to entice her. She grabbed his hand and finally looked him in the eye.

"I know." She said plainly, trying to pull her hand back, but Naraku kept a firm grip.

"Oh? My reputation precedes me? What did you tell her, professor?" Naraku quizzed, grinning when she pulled again. He tightened his grip in response.

"That you're a fucking asshole," His professor responded heatedly while pointing at Naraku.

"It's true. He did." The woman stated with a giggle.

"Don't laugh. It encourages him. You, let go of her hand. You're going to apologize to them and hopefully, you're going to jail." The professor ordered, his tone calm, but stern.

"I did nothing jail-worthy, sadly. So, your name?" Naraku continued without looking at his professor, kissing the woman's hand and relinquishing it. She placed it at her side and sighed, still keeping eye contact with him.

"Don't answer him. Go, now!" the professor ordered, pointing down the hallway where a group of people had gathered.

"Yes, Mom." Naraku exhaled sarcastically, pushing past the other two and marching down the hallway, squishing noises signaling each step. The professor shook his head and grumbled curses under his breath before turning to the woman he was interviewing.

"I am so sorry. You don't have to work with him. I can recommend you to another lab, if you want." The professor insisted, blocking the young woman's view of Naraku as he confronted the teacher and her class down the hall. The angry words echoed beautifully off the walls. The woman shrugged as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"I really don't care. He's nothing I haven't dealt with before." She answered with a small sigh and smile.

"No, you haven't dealt with someone like him. I guarantee it."

"As long as I'm getting a paycheck, I'm fine."

"Oooookay, crazy lady." He relented. The young woman shrugged, fighting away a laugh.

000000

Sango turned the key and unlocked the door, walking into the apartment, which was delightfully cooler than the outside world. She was met with a wall of wonderful aroma and figured Kagome was cooking dinner once again. Sango felt bad because for the three weeks they had lived together, she had only cooked dinner once. Kagome had taken care of dinner for all the other days, except for another random day where their third roommate left a crockpot full of chicken and dumplings simmering with a note stuck to the pot that said, "Got bored. Here you go."

"Hey, Sango! How was work?" Kagome asked when she saw her friend stride through the open dining area.

"Oh, it was something," Sango began, her tone drenched in annoyance. She reached up and pulled her brown hair from the ponytail, running her fingers through it a few times and sighing.

"Let me guess; someone brought their cat in because it was sick because they have it on a vegan diet?" Kagome asked with a smirk, but she certainly didn't find it funny. She just couldn't get enough of Sango's attitude when she was greatly irritated. It was funny and scary.

"Yes! Why do people keep doing that? It's so hard not to just deck every one of them in the mouth!" Sango exploded while slamming her fist into her palm, her muscles flexing beneath her long-sleeved shirt. Kagome began giggling as she shook her head. She was expecting that reply.

"I don't know how you don't, honestly." Kagome responded neutrally, looking down at the pot of chili she had cooking. She decided to try new seasoning, but she wasn't sure if she liked the smell or not.

"I'm going to go clean up." Sango announced tiredly.

"When you're done, we need to talk about something," Kagome called to her.

"Alright." Sango answered, feeling a sharp pain in her chest. She opened the door to her bedroom and closed it behind her, reaching for her brush as she approached her dresser and mirror. What could Kagome possibly want to talk about? Sango easily pulled her brush through the tangles, not even flinching at the sharp pains ringing through her scalp.

"I'm pretty sure I did the dishes," she whispered absentmindedly. But, then Sango remembered that Kagome didn't sound upset, either. Maybe Kagome wanted to schedule more hang-out sessions with their whole group.

Once Sango finished washing her face and changing into regular jeans and a T-shirt, she walked back to the dining table and sat down, waiting for Kagome to say what she wanted to say. Kagome stirred the chili for a few more seconds before pulling the spoon out and placing a lid over the pot to simmer. She placed the spoon down on the oven and walked over to the chair across from Sango. Kagome sat down and linked her fingers together, her face growing serious.

"Oh boy," Sango breathed.

"So, we have a ghost in our apartment," Kagome stated as-a-matter-of-factly. Sango opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. She held her finger up to signal Kagome to stop and tried again.

"What?" Sango asked, slightly turning her head to make sure her ear had full-exposure to Kagome's words.

"I said we have a ghost in our apartment." Kagome repeated.

"Um….what makes you say that? I mean, we haven't been here for that long. Maybe you're just getting used to the noises this place makes."

"No, no, I'm pretty sure it's a ghost. It's a she."

"You know this how?"

"Because, in the dead of night, I can hear her voice. I think she's about your age, maybe slightly older. She's taller than both of us. She only appears at night, too. The only glimpses I catch of her are silhouettes because I'm too tired to greet her at three in the morning." Kagome explained in a raspy, spooky voice while wiggling her fingers at Sango menacingly. Sango smiled as she started giggling.

"I thought you were serious for a second!" Sango laughed, playfully swatting one of Kagome's hands. Kagome shrugged as she shook her head incredulously.

"I may as well be serious about it! I'm not joking, Sango! I haven't seen her once since we've all lived together. Three weeks! Three!" Kagome insisted as she held her three fingers in Sango's face.

"Look, she's not a ghost, and she's not a drug-dealer. She just works weird hours and hangs out with people afterwards."

"What do they do? I don't understand what the attraction is of hanging outside your workplace until three in the morning!"

"I don't know, Kagome! She told me a few stories of things they've watched happen. They're pretty funny." Sango said with a shrug.

"Why can't she come home and hang out with us? Are we not cool enough or something?" Kagome asked, her tone taking on a more serious vibe.

"No, she's just…stuck in her ways. She'll eventually warm up to you."

"Me? Does she hang out with you when I'm not here?"

"Well, we work out together. That's about it."

"As long as she pays her end of the bills, I guess." Kagome sighed, resting her chin on her hand. Sango sighed, too, looking down at their table. She wished Kagome wouldn't take their roommate's odd lifestyle personally, but Kagome was a sensitive person.

"Have you noticed our Internet is a thousand times better now that she's here?" Sango pointed out, trying to drive Kagome's attention away from the emotional part of the conversation.

"Yeah, I have. What did she do?"

"She upgraded it. Said she would pay for it."

"I guess I shouldn't worry about it dropping me while I'm doing homework for classes."

"That'll be nice for once," Sango said, the bitter memories returning. Sango didn't use the internet very much to begin with, but when she needed it, she expected it to work perfectly.

"Maybe that's why I hear her," Kagome cut her sentence off when she heard the doorknob to the apartment jiggle as a key was inserted. Sango tried to reach out to keep Kagome from leaping out of her chair, but it was too late. The door opened and Kagome was pulled towards it like a super-powered magnet had been switched on.

"Hi! Hi, hi, hi!" Kagome chirped while waving to her ghostly roommate, who was wide-eyed as she slowly closed the door behind her.

"Hi….did something happen?" she asked cautiously.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the ghost?" Sango asked with a laugh while giving her friend a small wave. The woman waved back and side-stepped Kagome, who backed away and took a deep breath.

"I'm so sorry! It's just…this is the first time I've seen you in here!" Kagome exclaimed. Sango covered her mouth to keep her smile hidden. The ghost woman looked utterly confused, as if she had walked into the wrong apartment on accident and was greeted by kids who called her, "Mommy." She even held both hands up, as if being arrested.

"No, we saw each other, um, that one time when we were all together,"

"You mean when we signed the lease?" Sango quizzed snidely.

"Yeah, that time. That counts."

"That was three weeks ago!" Kagome said loudly. Again, their roommate flinched.

"Was it? Hm, everything has been a blur."

"I'm sure it's all a blur with the weird stuff you do, Jade." Sango retorted.

"Hey now," Jade scolded evenly, wagging her finger at Sango as she walked towards the hallway. When she entered her room, the door closed behind her. Kagome slowly turned to Sango, slightly red in the face.

"She seemed excited." Kagome murmured sarcastically.

"I've never seen her get excited about anything, alright?" Sango insisted quietly. Kagome held her hand up and walked back to the stove.

"Dinner smells delicious." Jade announced as she walked back into the room, her tone almost sounding bored.

"Don't get too excited there," Kagome replied, her tone sounding bitter. Jade caught the tone and looked at Sango with a confused frown while jerking her thumb in Kagome's direction. Sango shook her head. Now wasn't the time to explain. She was upset, though, and she was afraid this would happen between the two women. The problem was personality differences. Kagome was very sensitive and passionate; Jade was mostly numb and indifferent. Kagome was interpreting the things their roommate had done and said as avoiding them when Sango knew that Jade was, quite simply, a wandering dog who went where the good smells were.

When the table was set and dinner was served, the three women dug in. Kagome's expression had softened, which made Sango feel a bit more at ease. She glanced over at her Jade's face and saw exactly what she expected; the thousand-yard stare. Sango cleared her throat, finally tiring of the awkward silence. This was their first night together! She was not going to let it go quietly!

"I thought you worked evenings." Sango said to her friend, who shrugged while taking a drink of water.

"I switched shifts so I could go to an interview. Don't worry, I'll be back to evenings tomorrow."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Like what? What did I miss?" Jade asked curiously.

"Forget it. So, an interview for what?" Sango asked abruptly.

"That lab assistant job they were offering in the Chemistry department on campus. I'll be training to be the lab assistant."

"Oh? That's super convenient! Kagome is taking Chemistry this next semester. Maybe you could help her?" Sango suggested. Jade nodded.

"Sure. I don't know how much help I'll be, but I can try."

"I'll take any help I can get." Kagome said with a laugh.

"Fair enough. This chili is awesome, by the way. Thanks for all the dinners you've cooked." Jade said earnestly. Kagome smiled widely. She wondered if Jade had been eating any of the other dinners or if Sango had been taking leftovers to work.

"No problem! I love cooking." Kagome insisted.

"Me too."

"You love trying. I remember that weird Lucky Charms lasagna you baked that one time." Sango pointed out, making a disgusted face. Jade chuckled a little and shook her head.

"Lucky Charms lasagna?" Kagome inquired, her face also twisted with disgust.

"I was trying to make a breakfast bar," Jade explained calmly.

"Because you were too cheap to go buy some!" Sango laughed heartily.

"No, I just wanted to try. It almost worked." Jade insisted innocently. Kagome tried not to spit her chili out.

"I'm definitely making dinner from now on." Kagome declared after swallowing her food.

"I'm not that bad. I make a mean steak, okay?" Jade argued, still calm, but a fire was lit in her eyes now.

"By mean, are you implying it still growls at people? Because I see you not fully killing the animal before trying to cook it at this point." Sango stated sarcastically. Kagome began laughing heartily, especially after seeing Jade's shocked face as her mouth dropped open. Sango laughed, too, patting Jade on the shoulder.

"Man, you don't even know. My steaks are so mean, they scold people who make fun of my cooking." Jade said back. Kagome and Sango continued giggling and making comments. Sango and Kagome suggested watching a movie and asked Jade to join them. She shrugged and agreed, figuring she hadn't spent time with them yet, so she owed them.

When the movie started, the lights were turned out. Sango and Kagome shared one couch and Jade sat cross-legged in the lounge chair, looking up on her phone the length of the movie they were watching. They each wanted to watch a completely different genre of movie; Kagome wanted a romantic comedy, Sango wanted some action or adventure, and Jade wanted to watch one of those terrible movies that had terrible effects, a terrible story, and terrible acting. Naturally, she was outvoted by the other two, which didn't bother her until Sango decided to go with Kagome's movie since she made dinner, and now Jade was wondering if she regretted not going to her usual evening job. Then, her mind wandered to her new job and to her new "coworker" with the long and wavy black hair.

 _'Please, let him be a funny asshole, at least. I can deal with those better.'_ She thought to herself. She was prepared for the king of trolls, but she still had no idea what level this guy accomplished.

000000

Jade pulled open the doors and walked into the Science Building. The cool air conditioning was a relief from the hot, humid weather of outside. She turned the corner and headed towards the Chemistry department's office where her new boss's office was located. Her new boss, Bruce as he insisted she call him, seemed like a very nice man, but she wasn't sure if she like how permissive he was about his "asshole master's" student. Yes, he was upset about the cruel prank Naraku pulled on the unsuspecting children and teacher, but he didn't really punish the man for it, either. She wondered if he didn't because he couldn't. Jade reached his office door and knocked on it lightly, pulling her brown hair into a ponytail quickly.

"Come on in," Bruce called out lazily. Jade opened the door and stepped in, hearing him chuckle and greet her.

"A part of me wasn't sure if you'd still show up after yesterday." He half-joked, reaching out to shake her hand.

"It's whatever." She told him while shrugging, grabbing his hand with hers and giving it a shake. He stared at her for a moment, as if trying to read her mind, but he quickly looked away and stood up.

"I suppose we should start your training. It's simple stuff, really. Poor this shit into that shit. Don't drink that shit. Wear goggles and gloves when there are inspectors in the room, otherwise, who cares?" Bruce explained nonchalantly as he waved his hand back and forth while grabbing his keys with the other hand. Jade giggled. His smooth accent really drove his humor home with her. She would have thought he was Australian had she not read the professor reviews specifically stating not to call him Australian. Apparently, he was from New Zealand and being called Australian was annoying.

"Where did I put that stick?" Bruce grumbled, turning around and looking around his desk.

"Stick?"

"Yes, yes. For obvious reasons that were demonstrated yesterday, you do not want to walk into the lab without a stick, caveman club, or some other battering weapon at the ready." Bruce responded dryly. Jade couldn't tell if he was being serious or not, but if he was actually spending his time looking for a stick, she figured she should take him seriously.

"Should I just whack him once or," she trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

"That's up to you. Honestly, if you end up beating him into a coma, I'll personally pay your way through college and forever be at your beck and call. Ah, here we go," Bruce replied, finding the stick wedged between two file cabinets. He motioned for her to lead the way and Jade did, but she walked slowly, allowing the professor to catch up. He was the one with the stick, so she was going to let him go first.

"It's in your best interest to listen first before entering," Bruce whispered as they approached the door of the lab. She refrained from making a Steve Irwin joke, but it felt just like that. She and Bruce were sneaking up on a dangerous animal and they were going to poke it with a stick. Bruce held up a finger to quiet her, his ear almost pressed entirely against the door as he listened for noises. Jade saw his face contort with severe confusion as he mouthed the words, "What the fuck." She was now curious and moved closer to the door. It took a moment for her brain to register that the sound she was hearing was ocean waves. She also heard a voice, recognizing it as Naraku's, but it didn't seem like he was talking to anyone in particular.

"Sounds like chanting," she whispered. She saw Bruce roll his eyes as he jammed his key into the lock, turning it and opening the door while grumbling about satanic rituals. The room was dark, no light, except from what spilled from the hallway, and no windows. Jade stood in the doorway, refusing to walk any farther until the lights were turned on.

"Every grain of salt matters, every grain of salt matters, every grain of salt matters, every grain of salt matters," Naraku chanted slowly. Bruce flipped the light switched exhaled heavily. Sitting on the huge center table of the lab was Naraku, surrounded by bottles with labels on them.

"What are you doing?" Bruce asked skeptically, clicking a button on the projector with his stick and cancelling out the soothing oceanic wave sounds.

"Every grain of salt matters, every grain of salt matters, every grain of salt matters," Naraku continued his chant, eyes closed, breathing even, and Jade was so close to losing her shit. This was actually happening.

"Well, I shouldn't be surprised," Bruce stated, picking up one of the bottles. He rolled his eyes and walked up to Jade, grumbling something about comedians. Jade took the bottle and read the label.

' _ **NaCl – Sodium Chloride.'**_

"I get it." She said with a smile. Honestly, it was a weak Chemistry joke on the surface. She wondered if Naraku was speaking about salt as it was referred to in the video game/Internet world. If so, then this man was starving for a negative reaction of some kind. Either way, she refused to give him one.

"Professor, I figured I would kick-start her training today." Naraku said after snapping out of his "trance."

"How about no? Get off the table and clean up this mess." Bruce snapped back. Naraku acted offended before sliding off the table, hand pressed to his chest.

"My, my, we certainly are grumpy today." Naraku pointed out.

"If you back out now, Jade, I will completely understand." Bruce sighed while massaging his forehead. He felt a Naraku-migraine coming on again. Jade opened her mouth to reply, but Naraku had started chuckling. It was a deep, melodic chuckle, but it reeked of chaos.

"Jade likes a challenge. She's not going anywhere." Naraku stated, crossing his arms and staring down his professor.

"And you know this how?" Bruce asked. Jade stuffed her hands in her pockets after setting the bottle of salt on a nearby counter, trying her hardest not to smile or laugh. She figured it was best not to interject.

"Oh? You mean I already know more about her than you do? Shameful." Naraku teased, glancing over at the woman in question. He was trying to get a good read on her, but she had quite the poker face in play. She was amused, at the least. If she were truly offended, she would have said something by now.

"You're right. I should go stalk all of my students' Facebook accounts."

"I found this information on a dating site."

"I don't use those." Jade said. Naraku looked at her, eyes widened a bit.

"It talks?" he chirped, his face looking dreadfully innocent. Jade closed her eyes for a moment, a smile appearing on her face. This man was real. He existed. He breathed, he ate, and he put his pants on one leg at a time.

"I'm training her. Go back to your voodoo research." Bruce ordered dryly, tapping his stick on the ground. Naraku ignored him and walked up to Jade, bowing slightly.

"My apologies. Shall we call a truce?" Naraku asked her. Jade was still smiling, her eyes meeting his.

"A truce requires both sides to be at war and I haven't done anything." Jade told him.

"Yet. I will make you into a war machine soon enough, my dear."

"Okay." Jade agreed, holding her hand out to him. Naraku looked at her hand, hesitating for a moment. She played a good game….for now. He shook her hand gently and didn't keep hold of it this time around.

"Naraku, get the salt off the table!" Bruce said loudly. Naraku rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.

"Since you're training Jade, I recommend you show her where all the chemicals belong. I designate her as the salt wench. I'm going on a break." Naraku announced, taking off his lab coat and tossing it on the back of a chair. He grabbed his keys and began whistling as he walked out of the lab. He glanced back at Jade, who gave him one solid wave and a wink.

"She's taunting me." He said to himself after the door closed. Naraku started whistling again as he walked down the hallway.

Jade stared at the door for a moment longer while Bruce grumbled insults under his breath as he searched through different cabinets to find the chemicals he wanted to start off with. Jade was still in shock that Naraku existed.

"Where the hell did he get all of this salt? This is stupid!" Bruce shouted angrily, turning to look at Jade when he heard a noise. She was trying so hard to hold in her laughter that she snorted obnoxiously instead. The professor sighed hopelessly, but at least she had a sense of humor about the situation. He was just terribly embarrassed.

"How about this?" Jade asked, plucking a few bottles of the salt from the table and placing it on the desk she saw Naraku pull his keys from. She assumed that desk was his. Bruce nodded and smiled, joining her in disposing of the salt on his desk.

"He will retaliate." Bruce warned her.

"I'll blame it on you." Jade answered quickly. Bruce nodded and figured that was fair enough.

Once they cleared the table, Bruce pulled out a notebook from one of the drawers. He placed it on the table and sighed heavily, rubbing his hand across his hair-stubble face, staring off into space as he thought about where exactly to start her. He cleared his throat and tapped the notebook with his finger.

"This is what I'm thinking….well, have you taken basic Chemistry?" Bruce asked Jade, who was pulling her brown hair into a ponytail.

"Yeah. I had to take it to apply for this job."

"Really? I don't read the application rules. Alright, so you remember the labs?"

"Oooh, I remember," Jade sang with a grin while rolling her eyes. She remembered her alcohol intake increasing in those weeks, too.

"I'm sure you have fond memories of them. Basically, I want you to perform the labs of the first half of basic Chemistry over the next few weeks. That way, you're prepared to be the teacher's assistant for the lab class this fall semester. There are going to be too many students for one man to handle."

"Alright. I still have my notes and stuff for it."

"Excellent. Bring those in with you. I just want you to refresh your memory, so don't worry about any deadlines. It's alright if you come in once in a while and have nothing to do. On those days, just clean up any messes you see, look up any kind of grants or funding that you might be eligible for. More money for you is a good thing."

"Do I have any set hours?"

"Um, don't work past 25 hours. Come in when you want, leave when you want, but don't clock in more than 25. It drops to 20 when classes start."

"Wow. That will definitely help with my other job's schedule." Jade chirped, crossing her arms and feeling extremely satisfied with this new job.

"Where do you work?"

"Delivery for The Pizza Bar."

"Oh right, right. I've yet to eat from there. Is it any good?"

"I don't remember. I haven't eaten there in years." Jade admitted with a laugh. Bruce started laughing, too.

"It's hard to fuck up pizza, I guess." Bruce pointed out.

"Very hard, but we still find a way because customers still find something to complain about."

"Customers are bitches at best. I worked delivery while working on my Master's degree. The people who drove me nuts….you know what I'm about to say! I can't tell from the way you're smiling!"

"It's the people who don't know their own address!" Jade blurted out.

"Yes! Fuck those people! How are you going to get mad at me for being late when you don't know where the hell you live?" Bruce exclaimed, waving his hands with frustration. Jade giggled while nodding her head. She was mostly over it since she had been delivering since she was old enough to drive, but some things she could never let go.

"Well, I'll keep myself busy," Jade told him.

"I know you will. I have a handful of other students who work in here, but they've gone home for the summer. They might drop in every now and then. I'm working on accepting another Master's student, so you might see him towards the end of summer break. Until then, it's going to be Naraku and myself."

"Okay. I can handle that."

"Now, here's the thing about Naraku; he isn't always bored. When his samples have to sit, he gets bored and then he'll pester you. But, when he has work to do, he won't even acknowledge your existence."

"Then I'll keep him busy," Jade stated.

"That's the trick. Also, don't hesitate to ask him a question if you're confused or curious. He might be a rotten bastard, but he's also a smart one. And arrogant. Stroke his ego every now and then. It'll keep him content."

"Is that all I'll have to stroke?"

"Hah, honestly, of all the things he's been accused off, sexual harassment isn't one of them. If you decide to stroke him, that's between you and him. I don't want to know about it."

"Okaaaaay." Jade agreed sarcastically. Bruce chuckled and pushed the notebook across the table to her.

"Start with the first experiment. All the cabinets have labels on them. You'll learn your way around here eventually. I assume I don't need to train you on lab safety?"

"Pour this shit into that shit and don't drink the shit." Jade recited.

"Perfect. Alright, have fun." The professor said, walking to the door. He tapped his stick on the floor with every step of his right foot. Jade opened the notebook and turned the pages until she reached the first experiment.

"This one is easy." She said to herself, reading the list of materials and walking to the drawers to start learning her way around the lab.

000000

Naraku unlocked the lab door and walked in, spotting Jade preparing an experiment on the center table. His eyes darted around to search for Bruce and when he didn't see him, Naraku smirked. The professor actually left her alone with him? That was a pleasant surprise. He glanced at his desk, chuckling when he noticed all of the bottles of salt had been placed on his desk.

' _Bruce's revenge, no doubt.'_ Naraku thought as he walked over to the table and sat across from her, opening the container holding his salad.

"So, what led you to applying to this lab? We weren't the only ones hiring." Naraku asked, stabbing a few pieces of lettuce and tomato onto his fork. He saw her frown slightly as she checked her measurements for the beaker of water.

"Someone told me a really hot guy with long black hair worked in here," She answered dryly, staring at the water. Naraku chewed his food while staring down at his salad. Did she really think flattering him was going to work or was she grasping?

"There is no need to be nervous. I'm only asking questions."

"I'm not nervous, bro." Jade said while smiling.

"Bro? You're one of those," Naraku stated, his tone revealing his disappointment. He looked at her when she snorted.

"I'm just here to do work." Jade told him. Naraku took another bite of salad gesturing towards her experiment as if to say, "Proceed." Jade knew better than that. He was challenging her now.

' _Engage poker face. Don't let him see anything else.'_ She told herself. Jade continued reading the next few steps of the project, the memories slowly flooding back to her. This was one of the least stressful projects, she remembered. The next step was to pour the distilled water into the beaker to turn the silver nitrate aqueous.

"The copper and silver replacement experiment? Why that one?" Naraku asked, leaning across the table and grabbing the small beaker of water she had prepared. He slowly pulled it towards himself, his eyes watching her face. Jade blinked and smiled.

"Bruce told me I was going to be the TA for the lab portion of class, so he wants me to do the experiments to relearn them." Jade explained. Naraku raised an eyebrow.

"The TA? You're moving up in the world already." He said. Jade did her best not to show a reaction, but she was already tired of him. His vague statements, questions that revealed he already knew the answers to, and those piercing eyes of his….this was going to be an exhausting day.

"Yeah. Water, please?" Jade said while trying not to sigh.

"Did you weigh the copper wire?" Naraku inquired with a grin.

"Yes,"

"Do you have the silver nitrate weight?"

"Yes,"

"Is this distilled water?"

"Yes sir," Jade stated, her bitterness showing in her tone. Naraku pointed at her before drinking the water, placing the beaker down on the table. With a single finger, he slowly pushed it across the table and back into her workspace, his eyes never leaving hers.

"That tasted a little salty, salt wench." Naraku remarked, licking his lips. Jade looked down while shaking her head, a wide smile pulled onto her face. It wasn't a happy smile, but she really didn't want to show him how annoyed she was, either. She shrugged and walked over to the sink, grabbing another beaker and turning the knob for the distilled water. Jade returned to her station with a new beaker of water and placed it on the table. Naraku stood up and moved closer to her, watching for any physical reaction to his presence. He saw no acknowledgement to his movement, so, again, with a single finger, he pushed the beaker away from her. Jade pulled it back and grabbed the silver nitrate. Naraku pushed the beaker away once more. This time, Jade reached across with the silver nitrate. Naraku chuckled, quickly reaching back and lightly slapping the beaker off the table and onto the floor, the glass smashing effortlessly. Naraku was sure she would at least cuss him out this time.

"You remind me of my cat." Jade stated evenly, turning to look at him. Naraku found himself impressed. She was completely unbothered….on the surface, at least.

"Are you calling me an asshole?" he asked.

"I'm calling you a cat."

"You wound me."

"Oh," Jade replied with fake sympathy as she walked back to the sink for a different beaker of water. Naraku said nothing more, watching as she prepared another beaker and walked back to the table. Naraku walked back to his salad, picking up his fork and taking a few more bites of lettuce and tomato.

 _'She's a bit tougher than the others I've chased off. She'll give me something to do for the summer, at least.'_ He thought to himself, watching as she began stirring the silver nitrate into the water. Jade bent down until her eyes were level with his. She winked and slowly stood back up, staring down as the silver nitrate began to dissolve in the water. Naraku stopped mid-chew. Was she serious? He chuckled and said nothing, but he accepted her challenge nonetheless.


	2. Table Flips

**Table Flips**

Naraku looked up from the printed article he was reading, watching Jade scribble a few notes onto a paper before flipping back through her book for an answer. He lightly tapped his desk with his fingers, racking his brain for anything to say or do to her. He had wasted two weeks of pranks and insults on her and all she did was shrug and smile at him, or give the occasional witty response. Naraku's jaw clenched. As if sensing the chill of malice in the air, she looked up from her notes and locked gazes with him.

"You're quiet today." Jade commented. Naraku held up the article, highlights and notes scribbled all over the pages.

"I'm trying to understand this mess." He replied honestly. Jade's lips pouted a bit as she nodded, seemingly sympathizing with him for a moment.

"Well, looking at me isn't going to help you understand it," Jade insisted. Naraku chuckled and Jade immediately regretted her statement. Naraku leaned forward on his desk, resting his chin on his hand, his stare drilling through her.

"Maybe it will. How can you be sure?" Naraku asked mockingly.

"You're a persistent troll." Jade said with a sigh. She looked back at her notes, but Naraku knew she wasn't going to read them; not while he was staring her down. He could tell from how rigid her body looked, how tightly she gripped her pencil, and from that tight smile pulled onto her lips. A real smile was gentle and relaxed. This smile of hers told about his death playing in her head; slow and agonizing. Naraku smiled and slowly stood up, but he stopped his approach when the lab door opened. His eyes met Bruce's.

"Ah, caught ya, didn't I? Sit." Bruce ordered, pointing at an empty chair across from Jade. The professor had a box tucked under his arm, which he placed on the table, standing at the end. Naraku sat down and crossed his arms, his eyes locked on Jade again. She looked at Bruce, then at Naraku. When she realized he was still staring, she crossed her arms also, staring down at her notes. Naraku was positive she was grinding her teeth now.

 _'Is this it? Is she actually going to yell at me?'_ Naraku wondered, leaning forward, as if that would increase the power of his staring abilities.

"Am I going to have to pluck out your eyes?" Bruce asked Naraku dangerously.

"Don't. He'll probably get a boner." Jade complained. Naraku started laughing, finally breaking his eye contact with Jade as he leaned back. He had almost forgotten about that day.

"Why? Did you try it or something?" Bruce inquired, his face showing a mix of horror and confusion.

"No, I hit him with a stick and all he did was turn around and ask me to hit him on the ass as hard as possible." Jade answered sternly, tapping a single finger on the table, watching as Naraku was sent even deeper into his laughing fit.

"Oh. Well, whack him in the balls next time! He won't be laughing then." Bruce insisted strongly while glaring at his grad student. Jade shrugged. She honestly couldn't believe that Naraku would not laugh about being hit in the balls. She used to play softball and baseball. She swung that stick like she was guaranteed a homerun and caught him across the upper arm. It barely made him flinch, but it definitely made him smile.

"I think about you hitting me every night, Jade." Naraku teased, wiping away a tear he shed from laughing so hard.

"Shut up. I have shit for you to do. And I have an announcement," Bruce snapped, pushing the box towards Naraku. One of Naraku's eyebrows rose, pulling the box to himself as he read the label on top. His eyes rolled immediately.

"These people again," Naraku said bitterly.

"Shut up. Of all people, you don't have the right to judge other people for being people. You deal with those samples just like you did the others. You have plenty of time."

"What of the samples that I ordered for my thesis research? Will I be seeing a box with those anytime soon?" Naraku asked, tapping his finger on the table impatiently.

"Keep testing me and they might take another lap around the country, Naraku." Bruce said with a smirk. Naraku grinned as he shook his head, but Jade could tell he was very unhappy with the statement. She tried to hold back her giggles, but she couldn't. She covered her mouth as she felt the giggles erupt. Naraku looked at her and for the first time, he didn't smirk, grin, or chuckle. No, he was glaring at her!

 _'Oh, what a fucking loser!'_ Jade thought, now covering her mouth with both hands as her giggles turned into laughter. Naraku realized why she was laughing and his expression softened. He crossed his arms again and sighed.

"You had an announcement to make?" Naraku asked, closing his eyes.

"Ah, yes. Thanks for reminding me. Jade, dear, are you going to be alright?" Bruce asked, seeing as Jade's laughter seemed to have turned into an onslaught of her lungs.

"Yeah," she forced out, waving her hand at him. Bruce glanced at Naraku, noticing the foul mood that had developed. The professor frowned, knowing that Naraku was thinking about his revenge now. He hoped Naraku was ready to murder, because this announcement was specifically for him.

"Alright, then. Well, I don't have the time slots available this next semester to teach the lab. Naraku, seeing as you're my grad student, you get to pick that up for me." Bruce stated. Naraku's eyes locked with his and if looks could kill, he would have dropped dead.

"Aren't you bringing in a new grad student? Make them do it."

"Naraku, you're my lead student of the lab, therefore, you're the lab instructor and I'll hear nothing more of this."

"Fine." Naraku bit out.

"I'd like to see you try your pranks on people your size. Jade, are you done with your work for the day?" Bruce asked, realizing that Naraku was now in an irreversibly bad mood. He didn't want Jade to be around him.

"Um, I'm just reading and solving problems for now. It'll take a few more days for my other stuff to finish reacting." Jade answered, pointing at her notebook. Bruce nodded as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Why don't you just take the rest of the day off?" Bruce suggested. Jade looked up at him, scowling. Naraku leaned forward a bit, making sure he saw what he thought he saw.

"I have bills to pay." Jade said. Bruce squeezed her shoulder slightly.

"I'll pay you for the day. Finish these at home. Have a beer."

"I can't. I'm driving tonight. But, I'll go." Jade agreed, realizing what he was doing. She didn't appreciate the fact that he thought she needed protection, but she grabbed her notes and walked towards the door. She heard Bruce tell her to have a good day, so she waved to him and continued on her way.

"I think you angered her, professor." Naraku pointed out after she left.

"I angered her? Me? And you didn't?" Bruce asked incredulously.

"I haven't been able to anger her to the point of giving me a look like that." Naraku chuckled. Bruce shook his head as he walked out of the lab. Naraku watched him and sighed heavily.

 _'Is my new friend finally losing her patience?'_ he wondered, tracing his bottom lip with his thumb. If so, now was the time. Her bad mood was ripe and needed to be plucked. Naraku stood up and grabbed the box of samples, walking over to the counter and placing the box down softly.

"These can wait. I'm busy now." He told himself while smiling.

000000

 _'If I get stiffed one more time, I'm going to flip my shit.'_ Jade thought bitterly as she handed the money to the cashier.

"Hey, Jade! Another round!" a voice called loudly. Jade snapped from her thoughts. She walked over to the box, which was packed into the delivery bag.

"Alright, looks like you're taking this to a Mr. Cider. Dixon Cider." Her boss chirped. Jade's face twisted and she snorted loudly, covering her mouth as she erupted into laughter.

"Wha-What did you just say?" Jade stuttered, her voice muffled from her hand. Her boss blinked as his blue eyes scanned over the receipt. His lips moved as he repeated the name.

"Dixon Ci-oh….oh! Hah! I can't believe I missed that! Ginta! Did you take this order?"

"The Dixon Cider one? Yeah!" Ginta replied with a laugh.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me it said that?"

"You can't read?"

"Koga, give me the thing," Jade insisted, wanting to quickly deliver the pizza to the comedian and get one step closer to finishing her night. Koga glanced at the receipt and then he turned to her, his face growing deadly serious.

"This guy specifically requested you, though." Koga said, pointing to the part of the receipt that printed out any further requests the customers happened to drop on the establishment. Jade leaned forward and read the words, "I want Jade to deliver this to me."

"Maybe it was my roommates," Jade suggested.

"Are your roommates dudes? It was a dude." Ginta stated loudly as he wiped the counter off with a rag. Jade frowned. Maybe it was one of their boyfriends? Or, it could have been Bruce. He did make a few comments about having not had pizza from this place, yet, and this type of humor was not beneath him.

"I don't know if I like this," Koga blurted, looking at Ginta, who was the back-up driver for the evening. Jade rolled her eyes and snatched the receipt from Koga.

"No time to complain. I think I know who it is," Jade replied, her thoughts shifting to Naraku.

"Put the cops on speed dial!" Koga called after her when she grabbed the delivery bag and backed out the door.

"Okaaaaay," she sang back. She placed the pizza in the backseat and sat in the driver's seat, placing her sunglasses on. She typed the address into her phone just to be sure she knew how to find it. It was also the biggest clue to who requested her. Something told her it was Naraku. The address was from a nice apartment complex. Bruce lived in a house. Jade was pretty sure her roommates' boyfriends lived on campus. It had to be Naraku.

When she pulled into the parking lot, she saw Naraku sitting on the patio of the bottom front apartment. Jade sat in her car for a moment, staring at him through her windshield as she inhaled and exhaled deeply. Naraku held his hand up, wiggling his fingers at her while sipping from a bottle of beer. He was also shirtless.

"Asshole." Jade grumbled, leaving her sunglasses on to help with the poker face. She opened her door and stood up, opening her back door and grabbing the pizza with one hand, closing the door with the other. Naraku stood up and took another sip of beer, placing the bottle down on the table and vaulting over the rail.

"Punctual as usual," Naraku commented as he walked up to her.

"That'll be 8.50." Jade said quickly. Naraku pouted at her, reaching into his back pocket.

"Strictly business? Where's the fun in that?" he asked, opening his wallet.

"I'm working. I have to be professional." Jade told him. Naraku counted out the money in front of her and handed it to her.

"That is true." Naraku agreed. Jade gritted her teeth, but she smirked anyway. He didn't tip her so he could further her bad mood.

' _I'm not surprised. I'm not angry. I'm not angry. This has happened many times before.'_ She chanted to herself mentally. Almost as if he read her mind, he held his finger up to stall her. He pulled his wallet out again, slipping his fingers inside. He pulled out a single coin and handed it to her.

"You have bills to pay." He commented with that disgusting grin of his. Naraku waited for her to say something, maybe even strike him, but Jade just stared him down for moment before looking down at the delivery bag she held, unzipping it and pulling the box out. Naraku hated the fact that she was wearing sunglasses. They helped hide her expressions and gave him nothing.

"Thank you, sir." Jade finally said, handing Naraku the box. He took it from her and quietly watched as she walked back to her car. He felt his foundation tremble when she waved to him as she drove away.

"She's not angry?" he whispered, turning around to walk back to his patio. He leapt back over the railing and placed the pizza box down on his patio table, crossing his arms.

' _Why is she not angry?'_ Naraku wondered as he sat down. His leg shook and he gritted his teeth. He should have said something different at first, or maybe have given her two cents and made a joke about his two cents worth, or maybe he should have been less playful and then he realized what was happening. He was angry.

000000

Sunlight crept through the blinds and struck Naraku's eyelids. It took him a few minutes to stir, but once he was awake, he turned and kept his back aimed at the window. He knew he forgot to do something the previous night and it was to pull the curtains closed to keep the morning light out of his eyes. He yawned quietly and shifted until he lay on his back, eyes staring at the ceiling. He remained this way for a few minutes, planning his day in the lab out quickly. He was going to start the extraction process on the samples Bruce gave to him and then he was going to finish reading and tearing apart the article he started the previous day. He let the bit he read settle in his head and he felt ready to tackle the next part.

Naraku walked into his kitchen, opening the fridge and grabbing an apple. Next, he pulled a knife from his drawer and began slicing the apple. When he finished, he tossed the core into the trash and began eating the slices. He opened the fridge again, grabbing a bottle of water.

"I suppose I should go to the store, too." He said under his breath while closing the fridge. He originally meant to visit the grocery store the previous evening, but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to annoy Jade.

After showering, he stood in front of the bathroom mirror, towel wrapped around his waist as he carefully ran a brush through a portion of his long, black hair, a hairdryer in the other hand. The remainder of his hair hung behind his shoulders, dripping water down his back. He ran the brush through the hair, mirroring the movement with his dryer. When that cord of hair was dry, he separated another cord and pulled it forward, repeating the brushing and drying. It took some time, but it was the most efficient way for him to dry his hair. It was so thick that it retained every drop of moisture it came in contact with, like some desperate, dehydrated squid-monster.

Naraku walked into his bedroom, hearing his cell phone buzz, alerting him of a message. He walked over to his bed where his phone lay and picked it up, unlocking it and tapping the screen to read the message.

 _'It's from Bruce. My samples, I assume.'_ He thought with irritation. Bruce had found a new game to play with Naraku. A game that Naraku had no part in except to suffer. Bruce was shipping the samples to his friends all around the country and every time Bruce received an email alert of where his package was, he would forward it to Naraku.

 _ **'Looks like your samples somehow got sent to China. You're from there, right?'**_ the email subject read. Naraku marked the email as read and then banished it to his spam folder. He dropped his phone on his bed and took off his towel.

 _'He can have his laugh with this one.'_ Naraku told himself. He knew the professor had taken a strong liking to Jade, especially after pulling her away from him the previous day. If he couldn't get a reaction out of Jade, then he would get one from Bruce. Naraku pulled his boxers on, followed by a pair of black slacks. Next, he pulled on a nice blue dress shirt, standing in front of his mirror as he buttoned up and fixed the collar and sleeves. He turned to the side, making sure he liked how it looked before pulling on socks and slipping into his black dress shoes.

Naraku parked his car behind the science building. He rarely received the chance to park so close to the building, but since it was summer break, most professors were gone, which allowed him a parking space. Even though he spent more time in that building than most professors, he was not allowed to park there when classes were in session. Naraku strode by Bruce's black sudan and stopped suddenly when an idea occurred to him. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a stick of gum, quickly chewing it and pulling the sticky substance out of his mouth and pressed it against the driver's door keyhole. Naraku smiled as he stuck another stick of gum in his mouth, this time blowing a bubble before pulling it out of his mouth and sticking it on the backdoor keyhole. Naraku did the same for the passenger door and other back door. When he finished, he saluted the car and walked into the building, turning down the main hall and spotting Bruce leaving the lab and walking towards him.

"What are you smirking about? Did you finally get laid?" Bruce asked dryly. Naraku's grin widened.

"I receive enough satisfaction in life without sex." Naraku admitted.

"Was he cute?" Bruce continued, patting Naraku's arm as he walked past him.

"Suuuuuper cute." Naraku answered, making his own way to the lab. He unlocked the door and walked in, spotting Jade at the table and freezing in place. She was already here? She didn't come in before noon. She never did until now.

"Good morning!" Jade chirped, giving him a small wave. Her hair was pulled back, her protective goggles on, gloves on, and brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, all complete with a lab coat. Again, something new for her to practice. She never wore protective gear until now.

"You're here early. Why?" Naraku asked, closing the door behind him. He dropped his keys on his desk and carefully placed his binder of notes on the desk beside them.

"Mm, felt like it. I like to keep things exciting." Jade told him.

"Liar." Naraku said back. Jade stared at him for moment before shrugging. Naraku refrained from making a face, but her shrugs were agitating.

"It doesn't matter what time I'm here. I woke up early, so I decided to come in early." Jade explained. She was tightening a buret to a metal clamp, holding it above the opening of an Erlenmeyer flask.

"The titration experiment? One of my favorite experiments," Naraku admitted as he walked towards her.

"That would make sense. I remember everyone else hating it." Jade commented. Naraku chuckled, leaning on the table as he watched her set the equipment up.

"And you?"

"Eh, I didn't care about it either way. I just did it." Jade replied. Naraku's eyebrows raised with slight surprise, his gaze falling to the floor.

"Do you know why we teach this experiment?" he asked.

"To piss us off? I don't know. I just know you use it to measure the amount of base it takes to neutralize an acid."

"That's why we teach it. That and for finding the equivalence point of a titration curve." Naraku pointed out, drawing an S-shaped curve in the air with his finger.

"Please, don't remind me of Chem 2 right now. I just ate." Jade whined. Naraku chuckled and decided to leave her be. For now. He had work that needed to be done first. Plus, she seemed to be in a giddy mood, so it was going to take a lot of effort to drag her down and he wasn't sure if he had enough energy for her and the beginnings of an extraction process. Naraku walked over to the counter and grabbed the box of samples Bruce gave to him and walked over to the table.

"If any of my stuff is in the way, just push it back." Jade told him.

"Is the floor acceptable?"

"If I tell you yes, would you still do it?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then. Do whatever. I don't care."

"Hm," Naraku ripped open the box and glanced inside. He saw a paper, which listed the samples, and snatched it between two fingers. His eyes scanned down the page and he reached inside, dragging the samples out. They were sent in little vials, each with a label taped to them, telling which sample number it held. Naraku began placing the vials on the table in numerical order. When he ran out of samples, he immediately frowned, looking back at the paper. The paper listed seventy-three samples. He only had fifty-two. Naraku sat down in the chair closest to him and carefully read the paper over once more.

"Bruce, here are the samples from our latest field excursion. We took seventy-three samples and brought them back to our lab to dry them. We have sent you a small portion of each of these samples for you to….these fools only sent fifty-two." Naraku said aloud, not speaking to anyone in particular. Jade looked up from her notes and pursed her lips.

"Sounds like they have a counting problem," Jade spoke steadily as she carefully poured her acidic solution into the flask.

"Indeed. I need all of the samples. They all have to go through the exact same process at the exact same time to show any relevance. I cannot extract a portion of the samples now and then perform another extraction on the missing portion later. Not to mention this process is tedious and I would rather not do two of them. I highly doubt there will be much of a difference, but that is a margin of error they would not want in their article they plan to publish."

"Tell me how you really feel," Jade giggled. Naraku looked at her and exhaled quietly, relaxing his body.

"You're pretty bold today."

"I'm excited for the weekend, so I'm trying to make the days go by faster."

"I see. And I don't care. Well, this makes my day far less annoying and in return, yours just became far more annoying."

"I wouldn't expect any less." Jade responded calmly, twisting the valve of the buret open slightly.

"I'm done talking to you now." Naraku stated, standing up as he started placing the now-useless samples back into the box.

"Cool beans." Jade murmured, sitting in a chair and resting her cheek against her hand. She watched as the base liquid slowly dripped into the acid in the flask. When the two mixed, a brilliant pink color formed, but because the acid was too strong, the color quickly vanished, reappearing only when another drop of basic solution dropped inside. She had to watch this happen over and over until the acid permanently turned a light pink color. Only then was the acid neutralized and she could take her remaining measurements. She glanced at Naraku, who was now sitting at his desk, his chin propped up on his left hand while the right hand held a highlighter. Jade was surprised he actually returned to reading quietly and not tormenting her. She looked back at her experiment and scratched her head lightly.

"You should stir the acid between the drops. It helps the base spread and react through it equally. Your results will be more accurate." Naraku said without looking up from his paper. He was now scribbling notes beside the highlighted text; questions and comments for Bruce when they had their next meeting about his thesis.

"Oh," Jade gently shook the flask, swirling the solution around. She waited for the next drop and did the same. She noticed the pink color from the drops was starting to last a little longer.

"What do you plan on doing when you've finished the experiments?" Naraku asked. Usually when a student joined a research lab, they wanted to conduct research.

"I don't know. Haven't thought that far ahead." Jade replied, twisting the valve a little tighter to make the base drip even slower.

"You should."

"I don't."

When Naraku finished writing his comments, he glanced at his watch before yawning. It was noon already. He read two articles twice and still felt unsure of what he read. He decided to grab lunch and let the information sit for a while. He stood up and grabbed his keys, but Jade jumped up as well.

"Why do I have less mass than what I started with?" she asked him quickly.

"Mass? I thought you were doing titrations."

"I finished those. I'm working on the problems from last week's experiments." Jade explained. Naraku felt his stomach churn eagerly for food. He pocketed his keys and exhaled.

"Walk with me. Bring your data." He ordered. Jade nodded, taking her lab gear off and grabbing her notebook and the loose papers beside it. They left the lab together, Naraku taking her notes from her and glancing over them. Her handwriting was clean and dark. He also noticed that she made sure to write down exactly what she did with the experiment. She cleaned the equipment, wiped them dry, measured to two or three significant figures; the detail was beyond that of some slacker who "didn't think ahead." He turned the page and began reading over the data. He glanced up when they approached the doors, but Jade walked in front of him and held the door open for him. She did it again when they approached the commons area where the restaurants, salad bars, and snack bars resided.

"Give me a minute," Naraku told her, handing her notebook to her as he walked into the salad bar area. Jade waited for him patiently, hands behind her back. She was debating grabbing a bite to eat herself.

 _'Nah, I'll eat for free when I get home.'_ Jade decided. Naraku finished fixing his salad, paying the cashier and walking to a table, motioning for Jade to join him. She walked between a few tables and sat down across from Naraku, who took a few bites from his salad before taking her notebook again.

"You ended up with less mass than you started with?" Naraku asked her.

"Yep."

"Any ideas why?"

"Nooooo. That's why I asked you." Jade confessed. Naraku glanced over the stoichiometry equations she used. He didn't see any glaring mistakes. She solved them correctly.

"Give it some thought. There are two plausible answers I'm thinking of and one is more plausible and acceptable than the other." Naraku told her, taking another bite and staring her down.

"The only thing I could think of is something fell out of the glass." Jade said with shrug.

"That is plausible, but there is a better answer."

"I fucked it up?" Jade retorted uncertainly. Naraku blinked. That was a new face. She couldn't look at him, she was blushing, and she looked so…concerned.

"Do you think you did?"

"I had to. I can't think of any reason that says otherwise." She said sternly while crossing her arms. Naraku almost choked on his tomato. Now she was irritated?

"I can think of one." Naraku said with a smirk. Jade finally looked him in the eyes and frowned.

"Did you do something to it when I wasn't there?" she asked accusingly, her lips pursed at the end of her question.

' _She's pouting! I haven't done anything yet!'_ Naraku covered his mouth with his hand to prevent himself from spitting his food on her and the table. He snorted before laughing quietly, trying to fight his food down his throat. Jade held her arms even tighter as she looked away, staring at nothing.

"I did nothing. The answer is the fault of no one." Naraku finally said after swallowing his food. Jade huffed and looked back at him.

"I don't know!" She insisted eagerly.

"Impurities in your original sample." Naraku answered coolly. Jade threw her hands up while rolling her eyes.

"So, it disappeared during the reaction?"

"Exactly. But, it was such a negligible amount. When you round up, you're back to your original weight, which you would need to round down. Three grams with your original weight and three grams with your final weight."

"Oh." Jade looked down at her lap. Naraku pushed her notebook across the table until it sat in front of her. He couldn't help but to chuckle more at her reaction. She was upset over less than a quarter of a gram of sample?

' _She wants something more than a job here. She wouldn't be so upset.'_ Naraku concluded.

"Shut up." Jade said with a smile as she leaned across the table. She plucked a tomato from his salad and ate it quickly. Naraku took another bite, shrugging at her while smirking.

When Naraku finished his salad, he stood from the table and threw the plate away, Jade following him quietly. He couldn't figure out why she stayed with him after he told her the answer. He thought she would have gone back to the lab after receiving her explanation, but she didn't. Instead, she sat quietly, finishing the questions and stealing more of his tomatoes from his salad. He didn't know why he let her do that. It didn't bother him, but he wanted it to bother him. He reached into his pocket for his keys, but Jade had already reached the door with her key, opening it and allowing him inside first.

"Thank you, sir." Naraku said sarcastically.

"You're welcome, bitch." Jade replied, mirroring his tone.

"Ah, it's good to see you two getting along. Where were you?" Bruce asked curiously as he wiped the table off with a rag.

"Lunch." Naraku answered.

"I was going to clean that up." Jade said to Bruce.

"I'm taking a break from answering stupid emails." Bruce told her. Jade shrugged and walked to the sink where the flask and burette she used waited to be cleaned.

"Bruce, you are aware our clients are morons, right?" Naraku asked, tapping the box where the miscounted samples sat.

"Uh oh. What did they do this time?"

"They stated in their letter that they took seventy-three total samples from their field site. They took a portion from each of those samples and sent them to us, except they're missing the last twenty-one samples." Naraku explained. Bruce groaned while he rolled his eyes.

"Of course. I'll go call them and see what happened." Bruce exhaled, dropping the rag on the table and walking out of the lab. Naraku looked over at Jade, who was rinsing the soap off the flask. Naraku grabbed a nearby pen from the table and threw it at her, striking her in the head. Jade flinched and turned her head to look at him. She looked down at the pen, snickered, and went back to cleaning while shaking her head.

 _'Her good mood is insufferable.'_ He admitted silently. He remembered her mentioning the weekend exciting her. He wondered if there was anything he could do about that. Naraku turned around to the drawer behind him and grabbed the roll of duct tape. He began pulling a strip off and Jade quickly turned to make sure he was still across the room. Naraku winked at her, pretending to tape the sample box shut. Jade turned back to the sink and Naraku quickly sprinted to her.

"What the-Naraku!" Jade spat when he brought the tape around the front of her torso. He let her spin to face him and further restrain herself, her arms pinned down at the elbow. Jade stared at him vacantly, waiting for an explanation, but all he did was wrap her a few more times, rip the roll from her body, pull another, smaller strip, rip it off, and place it over her mouth. She didn't even bother fighting him.

"You make this so unsatisfactory." He said with a sigh. Jade blinked slowly, exhaling through her nose. Naraku shrugged at her. He now knew why she did that so much. It was an excellent response to someone, no matter what they said or thought. He figured he would finish the job and began to bind her legs together. When he finished, he stood beside her and tapped her back.

"Walk," he ordered. Jade mumbled something and it vaguely sounded like, "I can't," followed by a possible insult. He couldn't quite tell. Naraku smirked at her.

"Hop." Naraku countered. Jade exhaled loudly, but she hopped forward to the table. Naraku grabbed her by the tape bounding her arms and lifted her, grunting slightly. He placed her on the table and turned her on her back. Next, he taped her head down to the table, then her torso, and finally her legs. Jade waited patiently for him to reach the pinnacle of this little debacle. When she saw him again, he was standing behind her head, leaned over and staring directly down at her.

"The other day, Bruce bought a pack of colored Sharpies." Naraku told her, ripping open the pack of markers. Jade let out a muffled giggle. Now she knew he wasn't doing this to irritate her. He was waiting for Bruce to walk back in and see this happening. Naraku chose the red one and pulled the cap off. He looked down at Jade when she made more noises.

"You want me to draw a dick?" he asked her curiously.

"Mhm." Jade nodded as well as she could. Naraku grinned and began drawing on her cheek, the red ink staining her tan skin. When he finished the phallic shape, he placed the red pen down and picked up the blue color. Jade felt the tip touch beside her eye as he drew something small and colored it in.

"I was going to brand you with the peroxide, but that washes off so easily." Naraku commented, choosing the black pen and leaning down again. Jade hadn't seen him this close before. She thought he had brown eyes, but they almost looked dark red. Naraku drew a stick-figure of himself on the side of her neck.

"Draw something cool," Jade said, finally having moved the tape from her lips. It still stuck over them, but at least she could speak now.

"Cool? Why?"

"Just one cool thing."

"I gave you a tear. It means you killed someone. That is some serious street cred."

"Or I'm a sad clown."

"Indeed. I'll think about it." Naraku replied as he grabbed the yellow Sharpie and drew a yellow sun over his stick person. He then gave it a black smiley-face. Next, on her other cheek, he drew one more picture. Bruce walked into the lab and froze in place.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bruce asked loudly. Naraku didn't look up, but his eyes met Jade's.

"We're art-ing right now." Jade said back.

"Because he needed to bind you for that?"

"I put up a hell of a fight, let me tell ya," Jade responded sarcastically, hoping Bruce would pick up on the situation before he got too wound up. Naraku placed his hand over her mouth, sticking the tape back down on her lips.

"Did you receive an intelligent explanation from your clients?" Naraku quizzed, acting as if nothing was wrong.

"Our clients." Bruce snapped, walking over to Jade and beginning to pull the duct tape away from her. He started rummaging through the drawers around the lab until he found a pair of scissors. He snipped the tape away from her legs and Naraku finished the drawing on her cheek, capping the marker and standing up. He ripped the tape from her mouth quickly.

"Ah! Fuck!" Jade cried out, closing her eyes to help prevent tears from forming.

"Naraku," Bruce began.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I was being dramatic." Jade interrupted as she sat up. Bruce snipped the tape from her arms and pulled it off. She vaulted off the table, rubbing her mouth softly.

"Well, Naraku, they paid us for our services. They can either mail the rest of the samples or you can drive there and pick them up yourself so you're done on time. I don't care which." Bruce said bitterly.

"Why am I being given the ultimatum? I didn't miscount." Naraku stated as he placed the Sharpies inside the cup where the other pens, pencils, various other writing utensils sat. Jade had strolled over to the box of samples, staring at the address. Jade hadn't planned for a road trip, but if she could end their bickering, she would drive and pick up the samples. She looked up, Bruce and Naraku flinging insults and sarcastic statements back and forth.

"I'll do it." Jade stated. The two men silenced themselves and looked at her. Naraku pointed at her and smiled.

"It's decided then." He chirped.

"No! Look at your face, Jade! You're the grad student! You go!" Bruce insisted, pointing at Naraku.

"I represent the lab, too. I can do it. I don't mind. I know how to remove Sharpie from my face." Jade argued, her hand pressed to her chest. Bruce exhaled loudly, massaging his head with both hands.

"Fine, fine. I'll let them know you'll be there in a couple of hours." Bruce agreed, his voice exhausted.

"I'll go with you. He's right. I am the grad student. And my face is prettier." Naraku added on quickly.

"You son of a bitch! I'm so sick of….I'm leaving! I'm leaving!" Bruce shouted, marching out the lab so angrily, Jade was surprised he didn't spontaneously combust. The door slammed shut and Jade looked over at Naraku, who was sneering contently.

"So, what did he do to you?" Jade asked him inquisitively. Naraku slowly looked at her, an eyebrow raised.

"He sent my thesis samples to China." Naraku answered candidly.

"Oh." Jade looked down, covering her mouth with her hand. Naraku glanced at her quietly, his eyes widening slightly.

 _'She's smiling?'_ He thought with amazement.

"Well, I have to go home and wash this nonsense off my face first. I'll be back here in thirty minutes." Jade told him, gathering up her notes and leaving the lab promptly. Naraku said nothing as he walked over to his desk to sit down and wait for her to return.


	3. My Lab Assistant

My Lab Assistant

Jade walked into her apartment and closed the door behind her. She saw Kagome sitting on the couch, a tan cat curled up in her lap. Jade recognized it as Sango's cat, Kirara. She must have finally brought the cat to the apartment from her parents' house.

"Hi, Jade! You're home ear-what happened to your face?" Kagome asked as her expression changed from content to shock. Jade shrugged.

"Uh, laboratory initiation. It isn't a big deal. Do you have any nail polish remover?"

"I do. Um, will that help with," Kagome's voice trailed off as she pointed at Jade's face.

"Mhm. Nail polish works. So does bleach water." Jade said as Kagome pulled the cat from her lap and stood up.

"I'll bring some rags, too."

"Cool beans." Jade chirped, kneeling down and giving the tan cat two pats on the head. She stood up and walked down the hallway and into her bedroom. She examined Naraku's little drawings in the mirror and smiled. Red dick on the right cheek, blue tear under the corner of her right eye, stick-Naraku on the left side of her neck with a smiling sun, and finally, on her left cheek, a rather detailed drawing of a gray web with a black spider in the middle of it. Next to the spider was a little fly with an arrow pointing to it that had "You" written over it. When Jade turned her head more, she saw the arrow pointing to the spider with "Me" written over it.

 _'Or so he thinks,'_ Jade thought with a smirk. She walked out of her room and met Kagome in the kitchen. They both dabbed their rags with nail polish remover and began scrubbing her face.

"Soooooo….they're a little late on the lab initiation, aren't they?" Kagome asked skeptically, wanting to scrub Jade's skin harder to see if the ink would disappear faster. Her gray rag was starting to change to a pinkish color as she worked to dissolve the red dick drawing.

"Kind of. Do I smell cake?"

"Yeah. I baked a cake." Kagome answered, smiling when she realized the red dick was mostly gone. She was going to have to remember to use nail polish remover for when she got permanent marker stains on her skin. She began working on the tear as Jade tried rubbing the spider and fly away. It was hard to do when she couldn't see. She immediately pulled her phone out and turned on the reverse camera so she could see where she was scrubbing.

"I have to drive out of town to grab some samples. It'll be a few more hours before I get home." Jade stated.

"Well, they didn't help you with that by doing this."

"This trip was a last-minute decision."

"I see. Oh, I almost forgot! Sango and I want to see a movie Saturday evening. She said you don't work Saturday evenings. Want to go?"

"Uh, what movie?" Jade inquired, hoping it wasn't going to be some lame romance movie. If so, she would need a couple of shots beforehand.

"I don't know. It's Sango's choice this time." Kagome answered, finally wiping away the remains of the blue tear.

"I'm done driving at five, but I have an obligation at nine." Jade told Kagome, who began wiping away at the stick person on her neck. Kagome turned her head and took a few deep breaths. The nail polish emitted a strong fume and it was starting to make her head hurt. Jade seemed unbothered by it.

"Do you work with Koga, by any chance?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Oh yeah. He's my manager. We, uh, we go back quite a few years."

"Really? I had no idea you two knew each other."

"I didn't know you knew him either."

"Are you part of that gaming community that he runs?" Kagome questioned with a knowing grin. She figured that was Jade's "obligation" for her weekend nights. Kagome recognized the tapping noises she heard from Jade's room as game controller buttons. Her little brother played video games often when she still lived with him.

"I'm the one who helped him start it." Jade stated, moving her head in the direction Kagome motioned for. She placed her phone in her pocket after finishing what she could. Jade figured Kagome had a better view.

"I see. Well, I think our movie will start and end before nine," Kagome said with an exhale. She finished erasing the ends of the web that Jade had missed. Those were easier to dissolve than the rest of the drawings.

"How am I looking? Clear?" Jade inquired.

"Uh, mostly. You can still see some blotches." Kagome responded, pointing at the few areas she couldn't completely erase.

"Nothing a little make-up can't cover. Thank you for helping. I guess I owe you a bottle of remover."

"Hm? Oh, it's no big deal."

"Did I tell you that I'm going to be the assistant for one of the Chemistry lab classes?" asked quickly.

"Noooooo," Kagome sang.

"Have you signed up for classes yet? Maybe you can sign up for the lab that," Jade cut off immediately when she remembered Naraku would be teaching that lab. She didn't want Kagome to be stuck with him as an instructor!

"Only two of my classes are set in stone. I'm meeting with my advisor Monday to finish scheduling. I'll see if I can sign up for your lab. Which section are you?"

"Uh….don't." Jade said, her voice quivering slightly. Kagome looked shocked and lowered her hand.

"But, why?" Kagome felt a coldness rush through her body. Did Jade not like her? Why wouldn't she want her to sign up for her lab?

"N-No, it's isn't what you think! The instructor! He's, uh," Jade paused when countless insults filled her brain. It wasn't that they weren't true; she just couldn't decide which word was best to label him.

"Is he tough? I don't mind if he's tough."

"No, he's really,"

"Wait….was he the one who did this to you?" Kagome asked quickly, pointing at the remaining spots of faded marker.

"Yeah." Jade exhaled, a smile pulling on her lips. She didn't know why she wanted to smile, but it felt right. Maybe it was because she knew better than to turn her back to him, but she did it anyway.

"Huh? What a jerk! Why did you let him?"

"I thought it was funny. I mean, if you sign up for his section, I think you'll definitely learn from him. He's just really….I don't know. Asshole." Jade finally said, raising her hands.

"I might not be able to take that section anyway, but, you'll be in there, too, right?"

"Yeah, I'm the TA. I'll help you with the experiments and questions. I might be helping with the grading, too."

"Then I'll just ask you questions. I won't go to him." Kagome insisted as she finished wiping off Jade's neck.

"I guess that could work." Jade said with a smile. Kagome's brown eyes seemed to glitter with hope and she stepped back.

"I can handle it. So, what section is it?"

"I don't remember the numbers, but it's the Wednesday lab."

"Alright then. Anyway, I think that's as good as it will get." Kagome chirped, motioning at Jade's face. She tossed her rag in the sink and capped the bottle of nail polish remover.

"Yeah, I'm going to rinse my face off and then I'll use some make-up. No big deal. Thanks again, Kagome." Jade replied, walking back to the bathroom.

000000

Naraku sat in the passenger seat of Jade's car. He began tracing the dark gray interior with his finger, glancing over at her as she plugged her MP3 into the auxiliary jack of her car. Jade tried to ignore him, knowing he was purposely alerting her that he was inspecting and judging her car. She heard him sniffing and finally looked over at him, her expression clearly saying, "What the fuck" for her. Naraku looked back at her blankly.

"I was expecting it to smell like pizza in here." He admitted, breaking the awkward silence gently.

"I clean my car. I also drive with all my windows down when I deliver to prevent the smell."

"Ah. Clever girl." Naraku remarked, pulling his sunglasses out from his shirt pocket and placing them over his eyes. Jade pulled her sunglasses from her sun visor and mirrored Naraku's gesture. Jade finally found a song and turned the key in the ignition.

"Let's not make a career out of this, hm?" Jade suggested.

"I do not wish to be there any longer than I have to be." Naraku insisted calmly. Jade sighed quietly. They finally agreed on something. She backed out of the parking spot and drove out of the lot, realizing that her music wasn't playing. She turned up the volume a bit and heard the song, turning onto the street and leaning back into her seat.

"Cypress Hill? Only two kinds of people listen to Cypress Hill," Naraku commented arrogantly.

"Which kind do you think I am?" Jade asked.

"You are beyond the normal levels of calmness for the average human being. I'm going to say you're a stoner."

"Okay. What's my other option?" Jade giggled.

"A false stoner."

"Ah, which could I be?" Jade sang jokingly.

"You're not going to confirm or deny?"

"Nnnnnope."

"You're absolutely dull." Naraku complained, crossing his arms. Jade decided not to reply to that. The duller she was, the less he was interested in pestering her. She felt the pang of hunger ring throughout her stomach and rolled her eyes quietly. It had been at least five hours since she had eaten. Maybe six? She didn't know. She didn't care. She needed food now.

"I'm hungry. Grabbing food." Jade stated abruptly, changing lanes and speeding off towards the chain of restaurants downtown.

"This can't wait?" Naraku asked with a disgusted sigh.

"No. I'll drift your side of the car into a building if I don't get some food now."

"So, if you're hungry, you're murderous? I will remember that."

"Hah! It won't matter if you're dead, bitch!" Jade laughed loudly, speeding more before taking a wild turn. Naraku almost did a double-take, his hand gripping the door tightly. Did Jade just turn psychotic?

 _'Maybe I should keep her fed,'_ he contemplated silently. For that brief moment, he could believe Jade was a serial killer.

Jade swung into a parking spot and turned her car off, almost leaping out of her car. Naraku followed her with less gusto, staying a few steps behind her. He slid his hands into his pockets and watched as a couple of young men walked out of the building. They spotted Jade and their smiles grew large and excited as they stopped walking, watching Jade enter the building they had exited. When she was out of earshot, they both high-fived one another and began chattering excitedly about her.

 _'If only she hadn't wiped away my artwork,'_ Naraku thought vainly, casting a repulsed look towards the two horny men. He entered the building and found Jade standing in line, typing away on her phone. He stood beside her and placed his hands back in his pockets. Jade sensed him and looked up at him, a small smile on her face.

"Do you want anything? My treat." She offered. Naraku blinked, stalling for a moment. Just a few minutes ago, she was threatening to kill him and now she wanted to feed him?

"No. I don't eat fast food." Naraku replied, looking away.

"Okay." Jade sighed, looking back at her phone.

"You have a couple of suitors outside," Naraku announced, spotting the two men staring at Jade from the windows. Jade looked over and when she made eye contact with them, their smiles widened as they excitedly jumped up and down, waving to her eagerly.

 _'Oh, I forgot. He doesn't know.'_ Jade realized, giggles erupting from her mouth. She waved back at the two men, who almost collapsed from anticipation. She moved up in line, glancing at Naraku, catching him as he leaned back to look at her from behind. Then, he leaned forward and looked down her body.

 _'Loose long-sleeved green shirt, loose jeans, messy brown hair pulled into a ponytail and sunglasses….what are they seeing that I cannot?'_ Naraku asked himself, shamelessly checking her out in front of several people.

"What're you doing?" Jade asked skeptically, trying not to draw attention to him or herself.

"Looking." Naraku answered.

 _'He thinks they were checking me out?'_ Jade wondered, deciding to let it go. She was next in line, anyway. She ordered a cheeseburger and fries and stood off to the side to wait for her food. Jade turned her head slightly so she could see Naraku in her peripheral vision without him realizing it. His arms were crossed and he was pouting slightly, glancing out the window where the two men stood minutes prior, but were no longer there.

"I don't understand." He finally said, looking down at Jade.

"Understand what?" Jade probed, curious as to why this seemed to perturb him. He shook his head.

"Forget it."

"Right." Jade responded with a nod, a wide smile on her face. She heard her number called and took her food, thanking the worker and walking out, Naraku walking right behind her.

"AHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" a voice howled loudly, echoing in the parking lot. Jade stopped walking immediately and Naraku, who was busy looking for who it came from, ran into her. Jade caught herself as Naraku cursed under his breath as he fell to his hands and knees. He quickly jumped to his feet, brushing the dirt off his nice pants.

"AHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" a different voice followed. Jade turned and saw the two guys standing beside their car, waving to her once more.

"Hi, guys!" Jade called back, waving again.

"Yeeeeeuuhhh!" the first guy answered as he and his friend dancing around one another, howling a few more times. Jade giggled and walked to her car, sitting down inside it and unwrapping her burger. Naraku sat inside and closed the door, leaning towards her and looking at her intensely, as if studying her.

"Do you know them?" Naraku questioned sternly. Jade took a huge bite of her burger, shaking her head.

"Nope," she answered honestly, swallowing her food.

"Then why were they howling at you? You're nothing to howl at." Naraku stated, his tone revealing his frustration. Jade covered her mouth, her eyebrows raising so fast they almost flew off her forehead.

"I mean, I agree, but day-um! Why so serious?" Jade finally laughed. She watched as Naraku's expression lightened instantly.

"I'm not serious; I'm curious." He corrected her.

"You're a little too curious. So what? A couple of guys think I'm cute. Big deal. Not the first time this has happened." Jade responded, deciding not to fill him in on the missing details. He didn't need, or deserve, to know.

"Cute? They were acting like you were Aphrodite in human form. Naked." Naraku replied with a grimace, turning and facing forward in the car.

"Oh no, how terrible." Jade said with fake concern, finishing her cheeseburger and digging into her fries.

"I never took you as the type to appreciate that kind of attention."

"Why do you care? Are you jealous?"

"Of you? Absolutely not."

"No, jealous that they hit on me and you can't."

"I already explained to you that I don't understand their reactions because you're not that attractive."

"Right, right, uh-huh."

"Fine. Don't believe me."

"I don't." Jade lied. She did believe him, but watching him squirm was good entertainment while she ate. She scarfed down a few more fries, snickering as Naraku crossed his arms and looked out the window.

 _'Irritating woman.'_ Naraku thought. He knew this adventure with her would be a 50/50 shot. They were in her car and they were in public; both places where Naraku had no control over the environment. The things he could get away with in the lab were things the police would beat him to death for in public.

"You mad, bro?" Jade asked teasingly. She saw his jaw clench, as if holding back a stream of curse words and insults. He turned his head to look at her, his eyes hidden by his sunglasses. A smirk appeared on his face, a soft breath escaped his lungs, and Jade knew the cogs and wheels of his twisted mind were turning.

 _'Come on, asshole.'_ Jade hoped he would say or do something.

"Are you done?" Naraku asked her indifferently.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go." Jade agreed, surprised that he backed down.

Jade drove calmly now that she was fed, deciding to take the less-crowded route to the research lab to retrieve the samples. The day was nice and no longer humid, so she drove with the windows down. Naraku became preoccupied with his phone, occasionally scrolling or tapping the screen. Jade would glance at him every so often, wondering if he had fallen asleep or became interested with the scenery out the window, but he was engrossed with whatever was on his phone's screen.

 _'Why can't he be this way more often?'_ Jade asked herself, taking one last look at him before raising an arm to stretch it. Once she felt the pop, she did the same with her other arm. Naraku placed his phone face-down on his thigh. He leaned forward slightly, pointing at Jade's MP3 player.

"May I?" he asked her. She glanced at her device and then at him, shrugging slightly.

"Sure. Go for it." Jade responded, shocked that he would ask permission. He usually just took what he wanted. Naraku plucked the MP3 from the empty slot of space under the radio, taking it into his hands gently. He unlocked it and started scrolling through her song list.

"You can learn a lot from a person's taste in music." Naraku announced.

"Enlighten me about myself." Jade replied.

"I cannot. I just factory-reset it." Naraku chirped, placing it back into the slot under the radio.

"It's backed-up on my computer. I forgive you."

"If it wasn't, would you still forgive me?"

"Yeah."

"Hm," Naraku picked his phone up and began reading the article again. It was a basic medicinal chemistry article, so it wasn't hard to understand. It did keep him from staring at the clock and making this ride with Jade longer than it needed to be.

"What are you reading?" Jade chirped.

"Are you really interested or," Naraku began slowly.

"You deleted my music and we still have about an hour to go. I'm bored." She interrupted.

"That's unfortunate." Naraku answered, returning to his phone and saying nothing more. Jade huffed, resting her left arm out the window and her right hand clutching the steering wheel.

 _'I don't know why I keep trying with him. It's pointless.'_ She thought with annoyance.

000000

"Confident fellow," Jade murmured under her breath, looking over at Naraku, who had fallen asleep. His arms were crossed and his head was turned her way. She snorted quietly. It wasn't like she would ever do anything to him anyway. He knew that as well as she did, so of course he felt comfortable enough to sleep in her presence. The light turned green and she accelerated, taking a left turn and spotting the main building of the research lab.

"We're here. Fantastic." Naraku stated evenly, straightening his posture and pretending he hadn't fallen asleep.

"They're a company. Why do they want you to process their samples for them?" Jade asked, waiting for a line of cars to pass so she could turn into the lot.

"At the moment, their spectrophotometer and their ICP are broken, but they still have clients who pay them to collect samples from private and public properties to test for nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, or heavy metals such as lead, aluminum, and so on. They take the samples and we, along with another nearby university, process and test for them. In return, we receive a portion of the payment for our services." Naraku explained, reaching forward with both arms to stretch.

"Ah, okay. So, why not send us the entire sample? Why just a portion?"

"We only need a small amount, but they will run their own tests when their machines are fixed. We are here to offer results to the paying clients as soon as possible. The company will pick up the follow-up work and they will offer suggestions as to how to utilize or clean up the area, if necessary."

"Cool." Jade chirped.

"Not really. I receive the hardest requests because between us and the other university, I'm the most experienced student."

"Poor Naraku." Jade responded with a fake pout, parking her car and looking at him, her pout full and insulting. Naraku smirked and shook his head.

"You will get a taste of it soon enough." Naraku told her warningly.

"But until then," Jade made her pout so obnoxious that her bottom lip had completely covered her upper lip. Naraku let that image of her burn into his head so he could use it as revenge fuel for later. He opened the door and stepped out of her car. Jade did the same, snickering quietly to herself. It was the small things in life that mattered. She watched as Naraku fixed the cuffs and collar of his shirt. He fluffed his long black hair and straightened the sunglasses on his face, turning back to Jade and motioning for her to speed up. Jade slid her hands into her pockets and sped up her pace until she was walking beside him. He was one of the tallest people she knew, so standing next to him made her feel so small and insignificant.

"I'll do the talking. You're just my chauffeur." Naraku told her.

"Sure." Jade agreed. She was going to let him take care of business anyway since he was the graduate student. Naraku reached the glass doors first, opening it and motioning for Jade to go first.

"Slut." He said while flashing one of his more charming smiles.

"Just because those two guys wanted me and not you," Jade replied sarcastically as she walked into the building. She waited for Naraku to take the lead once more, both approaching the front desk where a young woman sat. She perked up when she saw them approaching, smiling widely. Jade figured the lady didn't see visitors in this place too often.

"Are you Bruce's associates?" the woman asked, straightening up in her chair. Naraku placed his hands on the counter, leaning forward.

"I am. This is just my driver." Naraku explained, pointing at Jade. "They didn't happen to leave the samples down here with you, did they?"

"You," Jade had bite her lips shut and turn her head and fight away the urge to laugh. This man was incredible!

"No, they didn't. I don't think they're allowed to. I'll let them know you're here." The woman said, running her fingers through her dark hair as she quickly grabbed the phone on her desk. Jade and Naraku glanced at one another, Jade shrugging and Naraku shaking his head slightly.

 _'The salt is so real right now.'_ Jade thought as she looked away from Naraku.

"They will be down in a few minutes. You can take a seat if you want." The woman said, gesturing towards the chairs and tables. Naraku nodded to her and she winked back, but he ignored it entirely, following Jade over to the chairs. He spotted Jade heading towards the chair on the end, so he quickly swooped in and sat in it before she did.

"Really?" she asked him, her entire posture slumping to reveal how done she was with his antics.

"It is only a chair." Naraku reminded her, patting the chair next to him. Jade sat in the next chair over to spite him.

"It won't be just a chair when I suplex your candy-ass into it," Jade countered, making Naraku chuckle in response. He enjoyed the rollercoaster ride of her responses. They started off neutral and gradually made their way to threatening, but he could tell from her tone that she meant none of it. It was a quick, trained response, as if she had practiced for this moment.

"My dear, I don't think you could suplex me. I'm too tall and I may not look it, but I am quite dense."

"You are dense."

"Heh, alright, I walked myself into that one," Naraku admitted.

"I could totally suplex you."

"I don't believe you."

"Stand up and I'll make a believer out of you. I'll whip you until you call me God." Jade shot. Naraku's eyes widened as he held back a laugh.

"Perhaps you should whip me again. I am due for another session." Naraku retorted, now looking at her. Jade rolled her eyes while cursing under her breath, a nervous smile appearing on her face.

"I forgot that you liked that kind of stuff. Well, I doubt you'll like being suplexed into a chair, so let's go," Jade insisted, leaning forward.

"Mm, no. The moment you try to lift me will be the moment our clients walk out to greet us and that would look bad on us and our lab."

"I'm just the driver. It'll only look bad on you." Jade reminded him, closely examining her nails. Naraku snorted quietly while closing his eyes and crossing one leg over the other. He rested his chin against his hand, tapping a patient rhythm on his knee with his other hand. Jade watched him for a minute, shaking her head and smiling when his reddish-brown eyes snapped open and caught her staring.

"What?" Naraku asked her.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Quit fantasizing about me. We're in the middle of doing business." Naraku scolded her teasingly, raising his voice so the reception woman heard him. Jade shushed him, but she gave up once the damage was done.

"He's lying." Jade said to the woman, who giggled quietly. Jade's expression went deadly serious as she looked back at Naraku, who was grinning from ear to ear. Jade crossed her arms and looked away from him, seemingly muttering under her breath.

 _'Is she actually embarrassed or is she fed up?'_ Naraku wondered, closing his eyes again and exhaling. This was the most he and Jade had spoken to one another in one sitting. It had been a while since he had someone speak to him who was not legitimately threatening him or teasing him to an annoying degree. It had been a while since he had someone who could handle being teased. The fact that she tolerated him gave him a tingling feeling throughout his body and he hated it. Naraku's thoughts were put to a stop when he heard footsteps and voices approaching. He turned and saw the short man heading towards them, his two associates beside him, a man and a woman, each carrying an item. The man with buzzed brown hair had a box, presumably the remaining samples Naraku had to extract, and the woman with soft red hair held a bag of glass pipettes.

"Naraku, I am so, so sorry that you had to drive all this way," the short man began, pushing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose.

"I didn't drive; she did." Naraku responded. He saw Jade stand up to meet them, so he followed her lead, albeit, slowly and reluctantly. They all shook each other's hands and smiled their fake smiles, as if they all knew no one wanted to be there at the moment.

"So, here are the samples. Because we caused the delay, I'll add another week to your deadline. I hope that's enough?" the short man asked, pushing his glasses up once more. Naraku glanced at Jade, motioning for her to take the box of samples. She shot him a cold look, but she took the box and thanked them.

"That is plenty of time. Jade, we are leaving. We have work to do." Naraku stated, wanting to prevent any further conversations that would keep him in this building even longer.

"Yes, my lord." Jade responded so sarcastically that it almost made Naraku's ears bleed. How dare she do this in front of their clients?

"Oh, is she Bruce's new lab assistant?" the man inquired curiously.

"No, she's mine. Come along, Jade." Naraku urged. He had turned and walked to the door, but he could feel the woman's imaginary daggers piercing his back. He opened the door and held it open, Jade storming past him quickly.

"Sorry again!" the man called out.

"Not yet." Naraku murmured under his breath, waving back to him.

"I am not your lab assistant!" Jade spat at him when they reached her car.

"You will be. Did you think Bruce hired you to be some random assistant? When my thesis samples arrive, you will be assisting me." Naraku explained conceitedly as he closed the door after sitting down.

"I'll help you, but I don't work for you." Jade corrected him bitterly, placing the box of samples on the floor behind Naraku's seat.

"Yet." Naraku countered, placing his sunglasses back over his eyes. Jade turned her keys in the ignition, flinching when a sharp pain rang out from her wrist. She let go and quickly grabbed her wrist with other left hand, massaging the stinging wrist gently.

"Ow." She grumbled, feeling her good mood of the day slipping away. Naraku looked at her and frowned.

"How did you hurt your wrist?" he asked accusingly.

"I didn't. It's just sore. It happens." Jade insisted.

"Has this been recent? Here," Naraku held his hand out and Jade looked at him with shock. Did he honestly believe she would just let him touch her again? Especially when her wrist hurt?

"What?" Jade was half-tempted to slap his hand away, but she mentally scolded herself for even thinking to do something like that.

 _'He deserves to be slapped, but I can't do it.'_ Jade told herself.

"I can….I have medical training." Naraku explained after a few moments of silence. He was now looking off to the side, but he kept his hand held to her. Jade stared at his hand for what felt like a year, but she finally relented and placed her wrist in his hand. He turned his head and looked down at her wrist. He squeezed it on the sides.

"Does that hurt?" he asked her.

"No." Jade answered. Naraku then pressed his thumb down where her wrist connected to the palm, his index pressed against the opposite side. He squeezed those and Jade winced.

"Numbness?" Naraku quizzed, still keeping the pressure. Jade almost said, "No," but within a second, she felt a tingling feeling rise in her thumb.

"Y-Yeah," Jade said.

"The carpal ligament runs left-to-right across your wrist. Right below it is the median nerve. Pressure on the nerve causes pain and is usually followed by numbness."

"But you're squeezing it."

"But you had pain before I squeezed it. It's probably a mild case of carpal tunnel."

"Thanks, doc. Anything else?" Jade asked sarcastically, pulling her hand from his.

"No. Except you being my lab assistant." Naraku replied teasingly.

"Whatever, dude. Whatever makes you happy," Jade said with an exhausted exhale, driving out of the parking lot.

 _'Your anger makes me happy enough. But you will be my assistant, whether you want to be or not, and that will make me very happy.'_ Naraku thought to himself. The tingling feeling he had about her disappeared from his body, which also made him happy.

000000

The next day, Naraku returned to the lab, sitting at the table where his salad waited and hungrily stuffing his face as Bruce made small talk with Jade. She nodded, but her focus remained on her experiment. She gave short answers and remained calm, but Naraku knew better than to believe she was calm. He saw something form in her eyes from the previous day, almost like the shade of green they held darkened to black. He took a few more bites of his salad, holding back a grimace when one of the dried peppers his bit into released a strange taste into his mouth. He knew he should not have trusted the peppers from the salad bar. They stopped serving the peppers for a while when a student from the previous semester dropped ghost peppers in the mix. This was not spicy, however. He ignored it, drowning out the taste with another bite. Again, he bit into another pepper and frowned. Naraku swallowed and placed another portion in his mouth, chewing slowly. His teeth ground another pepper and Naraku decided that he was done eating this salad.

"What the," he whispered, lightly pressing his fingers to his lips. They were tingling? For a moment, he feared it happened; the ghost pepper prick had struck again! The tingling began to spread from his lips throughout his mouth. The next thing he knew was his mouth was filled with liquid. Naraku quickly stood up and walked to the sink, spitting the liquid into the drain.

"Naraku?" Bruce called out, watching as his tall student leaned over the sink and spit into it again and again.

"I can't stop," Naraku said quickly, his mouth filling with saliva once again as he spit it out.

 _'It produces as quickly as I spit it out!'_ he thought with annoyance, spitting another mouthful out again.

"Rinse your mouth out with water,"

"I would….if it wasn't already….full," Naraku explained slowly, spitting between his words. He did, however, fill a beaker with water to at least attempt to rinse his mouth out.

"I never thought I'd see the day you became a drooling mess. Well, carry on." Bruce chuckled. Naraku humored the thought of spitting on him, but he decided against it. Naraku spat one more time before quickly filling his mouth with water, swishing it around and spitting it out. His mouth was still tingling, but it did subside a bit. The water seemed to help, but it also added more moisture to Naraku's mouth, causing him to spit more out.

"This is ridiculous." Naraku commented, hearing Bruce snicker behind him.

"Jade, do you have any idea what's going on?" Bruce asked her, seeing that she was still more concerned with her experiment than with Naraku's misfortune.

"I try not to worry myself with Naraku's fluids." Jade responded uncaringly, stirring a mixture in a glass. Naraku took another drink of water, spitting out into the sink.

"I'm suspicious of you, Jade." Naraku called out.

"Okay." Jade replied with that infuriatingly calm tone again.

"Szechuan peppers, hm? A delicacy I don't think a university's salad bar can get a hold of." Naraku explained, the numbness in his lips starting to fade.

"Oh please, Naraku. You know every time the salad bar brings peppers to its menu, some asshole dumps hot peppers in there as a joke." Bruce interjected quickly.

"These aren't hot; they make your lips go numb and cause you to drool….excessively," Naraku said, spitting into the sink once more.

"After everything you've already done, why would Jade just now," Bruce's sentence trailed off.

"I saw something in her yesterday. A monster that had awakened,"

"You're delusional." Bruce insisted. Naraku turned and looked at Jade, who was still stirring her mixture, her eyes still glued to it.

"Nothing to say, Jade?" Naraku asked.

"Not to you." She said back, a small bitterness iced in her tone.

 _'Perhaps it wasn't her. She does seem offended.'_ Naraku thought, turning back to the sink to rinse his mouth out a few times. As much as he hated to admit it, Bruce was right. The salad bar peppers almost always had a prankster just waiting to dump peppers into it. But, the Szechuan pepper was an odd choice. It wasn't even truly a pepper.

"What happened between you two yesterday?" Bruce inquired, noticing a tad more animosity coming from Jade than he ever thought he'd see.

"Well, I," Naraku began, but stopped when Jade stood up quickly, her stool creating a loud, screeching noise across the floor.

"Nothing happened. I'm going to lunch." Jade announced, walking to the door and ripping it open and slamming it shut behind her. Bruce's eyebrows had raised entirely as he slowly turned his head to Naraku, who shrugged.

"I only called her my lab assistant." Naraku said.

"But she's not your lab assistant. She's mine. I hired her and I pay her." Bruce reminded him, crossing his arms tightly as he looked up at Naraku.

"A jest." Naraku stated, refraining from rolling his eyes when another glob of spit formed in his mouth. He leaned over the sink and spit into the drain, running the water for a second and turning it off.

"She doesn't seem to think so. Knowing you, you're omitting some details. She is not obligated to help you, understand? If she does, it's because she wants to."

"She will want to."

"Things are going to change around here, Naraku. Have your fun while you can." Bruce warned him as he walked to the door.

"Your new grad student, I assume?" Naraku asked with a grin.

"Oh, that too. Maybe I'll have Jade work under them instead." Bruce sighed, leaving the room peacefully. Naraku stared at the floor, running that last statement through his head over and over again. He would give Jade to the new grad student and not his current grad student? Naraku's teeth gritted as he let out an annoyed sigh, leaning over the sink and spitting into it.

 _'I've been asking for a lab assistant since before he considered a second grad student.'_ Naraku thought with annoyance. Not only that, Jade was the first competent lab assistant to walk into the lab since he had been working in the lab himself. Because the only stipulation for the lab assistant job was to have taken Chemistry 1 and 2, many lazy students who barely passed and wanted an easy job to pay for their weekend drinking habits walked in all the time. Bruce, being as permissive as he was, hired them anyway. The past three assistants Naraku had scared away were lazy, inadequate, and moronic.

 _'She will become my lab assistant.'_ Naraku told himself. The new grad student was to arrive and begin their work right before classes began. That gave Naraku just about three months to convince Jade to work for him. It also meant he needed to tone down his cruelty towards her, especially for now while she was irritated with him. He leaned back against the counter, his fingers slowly tapping against the drawers.

 _'Or, I can torment her so badly that she'll agree to be my lab assistant to make it all stop….yes, I like that better.'_ Naraku decided, a devilish smirk gracing his face. He couldn't wait any longer. His eyes shifted to the other door of the lab, which was a small storage room where their strongest chemicals resided. He walked over to the door and opened it, flipping on the light. He knelt down, eyes scanning over the labels of each bottle. Nitrites, chlorates, iodates….not what he was looking for. Methanol, ethanol, acetone, benzene….still not it. He turned around to a different shelf. Sulfuric, phosphoric, hydrochloric...he reached out and grabbed the hydrochloric acid and placed it on the counter. Next, he grabbed bottles of other chemicals, ones that might react with the chosen acid and make a worse mess than he wanted. Naraku stored the other chemicals into cabinets in the main room. He wouldn't want to alert Jade of his intentions right when she walked back into the room.

"Hm, I don't think this will kill her," he said to himself quietly, holding the bottle of HCl acid in his hands again as he read the rest of the label. Naraku looked down at the floor.

' _Concrete? Perfect.'_ He chuckled, placing the bottle on the counter by the door in the storage room, leaving the door open and the light on. He strode across the lab to the sink, grabbing latex gloves and pulling them over his hands, flexing them and forcing out the air bubbles. He looked over at the door when it was opened, Jade walking in with a take-out container. Naraku inhaled. Time to play.

"Jade, it seems I have made a foolish mistake and spilled some chemicals on the floor in the storage room. I figured it would be good practice for you to learn how to dilute and clean these types of messes." Naraku announced while pointing towards the storage room.

"You mean make me your mess slave?" Jade corrected cynically.

"I will be helping," Naraku insisted, showing her his gloved hands. Jade exhaled slowly, loudly, but she nodded.

"Alright." Jade agreed, walking to the sink and grabbing a pair of smaller latex gloves. She pulled them on and pushed out the air bubbles by rubbing her hands together. Next, she grabbed her goggles from the table where her experiment sat in its solution, bubbling quietly to signal a reaction still taking place. Naraku motioned for her to take the lead and she did while rolling her eyes. Jade walked into the room and looked down. No liquid, no fumes, and clean counters if not counting dust.

"What mess?" she asked.

"This one." Naraku said, pushing the bottle of HCl acid off the counter and onto the floor. He saw her jump at the sound and spin around. He caught a glimpse of her shocked and angry expression before he closed the door and locked it. Immediately, she began pounding on the door.

"Naraku! Open the door!" Jade shouted, slamming her fist into the metal door several times before stopping to hear his reply.

"There is no better way to learn than from an actual emergency. You should start working before the fumes do." Naraku replied coolly, leaning back against the door. He heard her cough a few times and sighed. The acid had reacted quickly on the concrete, as he knew it would.

"Fucker!" Jade hissed under her breath, covering her nose and mouth with her sleeve. The acid had a foul, sour smell to it and it burned the inside of her nostrils and mouth. Her eyes watered and stung, even with the goggles on.

"How do you weaken an acid?" Naraku asked loudly.

"Shut up!" Jade coughed, now realizing that her sleeve was no longer working. She needed to think fast! She spotted a few bottles of bases, but she knew the best answer was water. Jade turned to the sink behind her and opened the cabinets below it, hoping that a cleaning bucket or a beaker of some kind had been forgotten and left inside. She saw a bucket and snatched it, dropping it in the sink and turning the knobs until the water was on full-blast.

"The best answer," Naraku murmured with a frown. As impressed as he was, he also didn't like that she was intelligent, either. He didn't want her to be a moron, but she was far too smart for her own good. He was going to have to step up his game.

"Naraku," Jade called out, now having fallen into a coughing fit. Her vision was blurry and she could feel her throat and nostrils burning intensely. Jade slid to the floor, her coughing more violent and painful.

' _I think my lungs are on the floor!'_ she thought worriedly to herself as she stuffed her shirt over her face, but she knew she didn't have the energy to lift the bucket of water. Her eyes screwed shut.

"Damn." Naraku sighed, the fumes lightly gracing over his face now. He no longer heard her coughing and opened the door while holding his sleeve over his face. He took a deep breath and held it as he stepped over the pool of acid. Naraku grabbed the bucket of water and gently poured it into the acid, pushing the reaction towards the drain in the middle of the storage floor. He placed the bucket back into the sink, allowing it to fill with water again. Naraku looked down at Jade, who was out cold on the floor.

' _Fool. She must have been breathing it in instead of holding her breath in intervals.'_ He thought. Naraku knelt down and grabbed her shoulders, weaving his arms under hers and dragging her out of the storage room and into the laboratory. Naraku glanced at the small couch on the opposite end of the lab, but this was enough mercy for one day. He placed her on the floor, turning her on her side so any fluid that built up would spill out of her mouth instead of choking her. He stood up and walked back into the storage room, grabbing the bucket of water and splashing the rest of the acid into the drain. Naraku decided to give the floor one last rinse, crossing his arms and waiting right outside the door for the bucket to fill. He looked up when he heard Jade cough back to consciousness. Jade moaned, slowly pushing herself to her knees. She was still coughing, but it was weaker now. Naraku walked back into the room, poured the last bucket of water on the floor, and then turned off the light. He slowly prowled around Jade; like a predator watching its prey die. He half-expected her to attempt to trip him.

"So, why was the acid reacting?" Naraku asked, kneeling down beside her. He tried to see her face, but her long brown hair had created a curtain, hiding her face from him.

"Because it's limestone. HCl reacts with limestone." Jade answered, wiping her mouth and suppressing a cough.

"What, exactly, is inside limestone that reacts with HCl acid?"

"I don't know," she breathed.

"Yes you do."

"Fine! Calcite!" Jade shouted. Naraku exhaled with relief, a smile spreading across his face.

' _Finally. Sweet, sweet anger.'_ He thought contently.

"It reacts with calcite, forming carbon dioxide, which makes it hard to breathe." Jade's tone suddenly returned to its usual calmness. Naraku's smile immediately flipped into a frown. She slowly stood up, her legs still shaky. Naraku mirrored her, watching her closely, and even preparing himself for her to turn and attack him. Jade covered her mouth with her gloved hand, another stream of weak coughs surfacing. She sluggishly pulled her gloves off and tossed them into the trash. Jade approached her abandoned lunch and exhaled. Naraku stood in place, still watching her tentatively.

"Do you need me for anything else, Naraku?" Jade asked, her face and voice showing her exhaustion. Naraku blinked. It took him a moment to realize she had addressed him. He finally met her gaze and shook his head.

"No." Naraku finally answered.

"Alright. I'll see you Monday, then." Jade replied, grabbing her lunch and walking to the door. Naraku glanced at her unfinished experiment and glanced back at Jade.

"You're not going to finish your experiment?" Naraku asked her quickly.

"I'll just start it over later. I'm tired." Jade's sentence was almost cut off by the door closing behind her. She wanted to walk faster, but her body was still in shock, it seemed.

' _I'll take a nap and go to work later.'_ She told herself, staring down at her food. It didn't even smell good anymore. Jade saw a drop of water splatter across the container and stopped walking immediately. She reached up and wiped under her eyes, feeling the moisture spread across the back of her hand. Jade felt her eyes welling up with more tears.

"Leaving?" Bruce asked, having turned from the department hallway and into the main hallway.

"Y-Yeah, I'm tired."

"Jade? What's wrong?"

"I'm tired." Jade insisted, walking past him, her legs having found a new energy and motivation to move faster.


	4. The Cannabis Canine

**Cannabis Canine**

Naraku began performing a set of sit-ups, exhaling as he bent toward his knees and inhaling when he relaxed onto his back. He didn't let his head touch the floor; he kept it millimeters from touching. If his head touched, he started the set over. Abs so sore that he couldn't eat or sit were enough motivation to keep a perfect sit-up posture. Naraku exhaled again, slowly, controlled, as he lifted his torso towards his legs. Naraku did this several more times and didn't stop until he felt the burning sensation in his stomach. He pushed through a few more sit-ups and finally relaxed on his back when he decided that was enough for that set. He breathed slowly, in through his nose and out through his mouth, glancing at his watch to time his thirty-second rest before starting up another set. He heard the clanking and thumps of weights being lifted and dropped, guys high-fiving and celebrating one another when they completed a set that weighed heavier than their last. Naraku looked at his watch. The last three seconds ticked down. He placed his hands on his head, spread his feet shoulder-length apart and pressed them flat to the floor. Naraku sat up, exhaling again.

When he finished his core workouts, Naraku grabbed a small towel and a bottle of water with vinegar from a rack provided by the gym. He had his own towel for excess sweat, but he didn't want to use his personal towel to clean off the equipment he wanted to use. He often heard many men in the gym state that they weren't afraid of germs or other people's sweat. Naraku wasn't afraid either; he was simply disgusted. The thought of sweat and grime, other than his own, touching his body made him nauseous. Plus, many men found it necessary and, well, manly, to work-out even though they were sick. Naraku wanted nothing to do with that mentality. It was almost insulting to contract an illness from such a moronic person.

Naraku found an empty lifting bench and sprayed it down, folding the towel as he knelt down to scrub and dry it thoroughly. He made sure to wipe the sides, down in the crevice of the headpiece and even down to the part of the bench he knew he wouldn't touch. Next, he sprayed and wiped down the lifting bar he was going to use, scrubbing the grips where his hands would touch the most.

When he finished cleaning his lifting station, he placed the bottle of watered-down vinegar next to the station, figuring he would need it again soon. Naraku took the cleaning towel with him as he walked towards the center of the lifting area where all the weights hung and waited to be used. His lifting station already had some weights hooked to it, but he needed two of the largest weights to balance it out. He placed the towel on the handle of the weight and grabbed it with both hands, carrying it back to his station and sliding it onto the bar. He walked back to the rack of weights and grabbed a second weight in the same fashion, hauling it to the bar and sliding it on. Naraku added a few smaller weights on to the bar, looking to his left when he heard a loud groan, a huge thump, followed by three guys cheering and high-fiving one another. Apparently, one of them lifted something very heavy and needed assurance from his friends.

 _'Adorable.'_ Naraku wryly thought to himself when they slapped each other's asses while reciting the usual, "No homo," statement to reassure their friends of their intentions. He didn't mind that they were working out. He was a workout man himself, obviously. He just wished they would keep their voices down and their insecurities about their dick sizes to themselves. Naraku shook his head and readjusted his now-clean bench under the bar so he could lift it without injuring himself.

"Hey man, you need a spotter?" a man asked. Naraku glanced over at him. He was an average height, slightly muscular build. He had tan eyes, long black hair pulled back into a ponytail and piercing blue eyes. Naraku arched an eyebrow.

"No. I'm just maintaining my build. I've lifted this before." Naraku explained simply as he straddled the bench. The man shrugged and nodded.

"Alright. Well, if you change your mind, give us a holler." The man said, pointing in the direction behind him with his thumb.

"Koga, come on! I want to finish this lift before my arms realize what's happened!" another, whinier, voice called out. The blue-eyed man quickly turned and marched away, replying with a sarcastic insult to his lifting buddy and explaining that he was trying to be a good samaritan. Naraku snorted quietly as he relaxed on his back, adjusting himself so the bar was hovering over his chest. He didn't need a spotter or a gym buddy to slap his ass after he finished a good lift. He knew he was good. Naraku gripped the bar and lifted it, feeling a few pops in his arms and grunting.

 _'I knew I should have stretched more,'_ he thought crossly. But, he was already there. Naraku lowered the bar slowly, inhaling through his nose. He exhaled through his mouth when he pushed the bar up, almost to the point of where his arms would lock, but not quite. He refrained from rolling his eyes when heard another grunt, loud thump, and more celebrations from the No-Homo Squad.

"I lost count." He whispered under his breath, choosing the last number he remembered and going forward with his set. Naraku performed a couple more repetitions before suddenly, for some reason, his brain decided to spontaneously remind him of Jade from the previous day and how upset she looked. Bruce claimed that she was crying. Naraku's arm locked and he gasped, thinking for a split second that he was actually going to crush his own face, but he caught the bar, carefully nudging it into the holding slots and lowering his arms to his chest.

"Damn." He mumbled, realizing that his adrenaline had kicked in and now he was shaky. Bench press and shakiness never mixed well, so he waited for the nerves to subside. He closed his eyes, focusing on his breathing, making sure it was deep and slow, but his brain betrayed him again. He remembered Bruce's red face of anger as he yelled at Naraku, fearful that he lost another lab assistant and how pissed he was because she was actually good at her job, unlike many others he came across.

 _'As if it is my fault the previous three were failures,'_ Naraku clenched his teeth for a moment, but released the pressure. Jade told him she would see him Monday. If she were truly done, she would not have said that….would she? Naraku's eyes snapped open. He grabbed the bar and lifted it again.

 _'She said she would see me Monday.'_ He told himself again, the shakiness gone from his limbs. Jade was tougher than that. She would come back.

Once Naraku finished lifting, he cleaned the bench once more and tossed the towel he used into a box where towels were disposed in the gym. He returned the bottle of vinegar water to a shelf and began walking to the back door, which led outside to a track. He preferred blacktop to treadmills and since the season was slowly turning into summer, it was hot outside; more sweat and more burning calories. Naraku tucked his personal hand-towel into his shorts so he could keep his hands free.

"How many miles today?" he asked himself quietly, pressing a button on his watch to switch it into stopwatch mode. He looked up at the sky as he thought for a moment. One lap was a quarter of a mile. He also had to shop for groceries and ensure that his bills were paid for the month.

"Twelve laps," he whispered to himself as he walked to the start line. Naraku made sure his hair was still tied back into a ponytail tightly enough before taking off at mid-pace, starting the stopwatch timer.

Naraku stood in front of his mirror at home after returning from the gym and showering. He untied his towel and stared at himself, turning from side to side, straightening his posture, and flexing whatever muscles he could. He figured he would increase the weight on his lifts for his shoulders and his curls. His arms needed more work. Naraku dropped his towel on the floor, turning his back to the mirror and pulling his hair forward, letting the black tendrils drape over his chest. He turned his head and repeated his ritual.

 _'Why does my back look so much better than my front? How irritating.'_ He thought to himself with a scowl. He wanted them to look equally good. Naraku's eyes rested on the dark spider tattoo on his back. He noticed that it looked duller than usual. Perhaps it needed a touch-up. Naraku inhaled deeply through his nose and walked back to his bathroom to dry his hair and dress for the day.

Once Naraku finished drying his hair, the natural wave of his hair returned. He brushed through it one last time before tying it back into a ponytail once more. He pulled on a pair of black slacks over his boxers and buttoned up a light blue shirt on his torso. Naraku stepped into his black dress shoes and tied them, grabbing his phone and wallet. He walked out of his room and into the second room of his apartment. Half of the room served as an office, complete with a dark wooden desk and a matching bookcase that almost touched the ceiling. It was stacked with many different books that Naraku read in his free time or used as references for his research, both official and fun research. The other half of the room served as a small laboratory set-up. He walked over to the little laboratory and slipped on a single latex glove, reaching inside his drawer and pulling out a tiny box that used to house a piece of jewelry that he "purified" and sorted out for more money than it was originally worth.

Naraku whistled a tune as he locked his apartment door and strode out to his car, pocketing the little box, along with his gloved hand to prevent any nosy neighbors from becoming suspicious. In his other hand, his keys jingled as he lightly tossed them in the air, catching them and turning them until he reached his car key. He looked through his sunglasses as one of his neighbors, a tall, slender woman with short, dyed-red hair walked towards him. She moved over on the sidewalk to avoid running into him, but she also checked him out very obviously. It almost pained Naraku at how blatant she was about it. He forced himself to not turn back to her because he knew he would catch her checking out his backside, which was his better side. Naraku reached his black car and dragged a finger along the hood before stopping at his door. He glanced at his finger. No dirt. He smirked. Finally. Something good with no catch.

'On my way.' Naraku texted on his phone before placing his phone in the cup holder next to his arm and turning on his car, backing out of the parking space. He drove out of the lot and turned onto the main road leading out of the apartment complex, which sat back from many busy roads to help drown out the noise and making living quieter and, of course, more expensive. Naraku didn't mind the price when he first moved there. He worked a full-time job and he was the lab assistant before Jade or any of the previous morons, so money was not an issue then. However, once he became a graduate student, he had to give up that full-time job. Naraku received funding for small projects he performed under Bruce's name, but the funding Naraku really needed was the funding for his thesis samples, which were currently wherever the Hell his professor wanted them to be and unfortunately, the fund money went where the samples were, so neither were in Naraku's possession.

"Hm," Naraku looked down when his phone buzzed. He saw the, 'Alright. Good to go' response on his screen and smiled his first real smile of the day, a breath of relief leaving his chest. Pay day was always the best day.

He found a parking space in the lot where he usually met this particular client and parked, stepping out of his car and closing the door. Naraku began walking towards the entrance of the grocery store, both hands in his pockets now. He saw someone mirroring him in his peripheral view and continued into the store. The two men walked straight back until the found an isle that was empty and had no camera views in. Naraku scoped those out long ago. He quickly turned to the man and shook his hand, leaving the small box in his client's hand. Next, they high-fived with their left hands, Naraku gripping the wad of cash and lowering his hand into his pocket.

"I was afraid you couldn't make it," the man said with a smirk, his tone drenched in sarcasm. He flipped his long, black braid behind him and sighed heavily he pulled his hand from his pocket and crossed his arms.

"I'm always up for grocery shopping." Naraku replied, his sarcasm much less obvious. He slid his glove off in his pocket, feeling the relief of another successful deal kick in.

"Me too. I love cookies. I'm going to go grab some. I'll definitely need them after this." The other man said, winking while patting the pocket housing the box Naraku gave him and walking away briskly. Naraku watched him leave the isle before turning and walking back to the entrance to grab a basket. He figured since he was already at the store that he should take advantage of it.

000000

Sango relaxed on her back on the tan couch, one arm propped behind her head, the other hand slowly flipping her phone around and around in her hand. Kagome had left to grab a few groceries at the store and Jade was due to be home within the next few minutes. She noticed her leg was shaking in a steady rhythm and mentally willed it to stop, but it started going again once she looked up at her cat, who was curled up on the back of the couch.

"Kirara, I forgot to bring your toys, didn't I?" she said to the cat, stroking its fur. The feline almost blended in with the couch, maybe a shade or two lighter. She didn't open her eyes, but she purred happily in response. Sango huffed.

 _'Well, if Jade isn't too busy being weird, we'll have plenty of time to walk around the mall. Maybe I can find a few toys in the pet store.'_ Sango told herself, checking her phone even though she knew no one had messaged her. She would have heard the exciting flute ringtone if she did receive a message. Sango stretched her arms and legs, yawning tiredly. Once she realized she was getting sleepy, she sat up immediately to wake herself.

"I guess I'll get ready." She said with a smile, standing up and walking down the hallway to the first room on the right. Although Jade was weird, she was entertaining, so Sango wasn't worried about being bored. She and Jade met in Chemistry class and they were lab partners in the lab portion. Jade's humor was a rollercoaster. Sango had only been to the mall to hang out with Jade once before and Jade's most active part was the arcade. The two young women played Dance Dance Revolution until they were drenched in sweat, trying their hardest to out-step the other with each round. Sango remembered how people, guys and girls, cheered Jade, howling like wild animals. When Jade insisted that she was losing and that they should cheer Sango, they immediately howled and cheered for Sango the rest of the matches. It was strange, but it was also fun.

"Sango?" a sweet voice called out. It was Kagome, home from her quick grocery trip.

"Just brushing my hair and changing clothes." Sango called back, placing her brush down after working out the few tangles she had.

"Right! I should change, too! Do you think Jade is okay with eating out?" Kagome asked, sprinting to her room, which was next to Sango's.

"Yeah, just don't ask it like that to her. She'll probably make a lesbian joke." Sango retorted dryly. She heard Kagome snort from the bathroom that was connected their rooms.

"Anyway, I figured we could eat at the mall. That way, we can hang out there for a bit before the movie starts and we can walk to the theater." Kagome explained, quickly running a brush through her soft black hair.

"No arguments from me." Sango assured her friend.

"Do you think Jade will agree?"

"Oh yeah."

"I just don't want to offend her. I feel like she's a bit apprehensive with me sometimes."

"That's Jade. She's like a cat." Sango said, leaning in the bathroom doorway and making a clawing motion at Kagome.

"Yeah, yeah," Kagome replied while smiling.

Once they finished dressing, they met in the living room to evaluate each other's outfits and to play with Kirara, who had awoken from her nap and was ready for some attention. Kagome used the removable strap from her purse as a toy, snaking it around on the floor teasingly. Kirara quickly pounced and pounded the end of it with her paws, rolling over it, and jumping when Kagome wiggled it again.

"She might tear it up." Sango told Kagome.

"It's alright. It's old." Kagome insisted, now dangling the strap in the air, pulling it up when Kirara jumped for it. The two women looked at the door when it opened, Jade walking in and waving to them.

"Ayyyyy," Jade said as she closed the door behind her with her foot.

"I chose the action movie!" Sango chirped, smiling with her mouth open. Jade perked up immediately.

"Oh, right. That's today. Okay. Give me a minute," Jade yawned as she walked down the hallway.

"You forgot?" Sango asked accusingly.

"Yeaaaaah. But I don't have anything planned until nine." Jade replied before closing her bedroom door. Sango shrugged and snickered, looking at Kagome, who was still playing with Kirara. Sango motioned for Kagome to hand her the strap and she did. Sango began twirling the strap in the air, Kirara standing and twirling once before swatting the strap lightly.

"We should get her some toys." Kagome said.

"I was thinking about that right before you came home. I figured I'd grab a few cheap ones at the mall." Sango replied, laughing when Kirara turned belly-up and mewed. It was a cute gesture. She reached forward and stroked her cat's belly a few times, glancing at Jade, who was approaching while dressed and ready to go. Kagome and Sango stood up, Sango handing the purse strap back to Kagome.

"Whoa." Jade said, pointing at her two roommates with both hands.

"What?" Kagome and Sango replied simultaneously.

"I feel so underdressed compared to you two." Jade pointed out with a laugh. Kagome was in a simple white skirt with a yellow shirt and white jacket to match and yellow heels. Sango was wearing fitted jeans with a plaid shirt with coral, white, and pink and coral flip flops. Kagome and Sango snickered in silent agreement. Jade was wearing loose jeans that had a few rips around the knees and were completely frayed at the bottom, meeting her faded green Chucks. Her shirt was a tie-dye mix of faded green and purple and gray. On the front, a printed imagine of several wolves and the words, "The Pack," written in white font.

"We can wait if you want to change." Kagome insisted, absentmindedly petting her white skirt with her hand.

"Nah, I don't mind helping play you both up a few more notches. Not that you need it." Jade spoke coolly, while waving her hand at them. Sango and Kagome looked at one another while laughing.

"Wow. You're a better smooth talker than most guys I've met," Kagome admitted while smiling widely.

"She could give Miroku a serious run for his money." Sango added with a few slow nods.

"I'm the ultimate ladies' man." Jade replied in a deep voice, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Alright, Ladies' Man. Calm down. So, I guess we're ready?" Sango asked. Her two roommates nodded and shrugged, murmuring agreements under their breaths.

"Are you driving, Sango? Or am I?" Kagome asked quickly, digging through her small purse for her keys.

"Actually, I'm electing Jade to be the driver." Sango insisted, jerking her thumb in Jade's direction.

"Yeeeeeeeuh." Jade answered, her hands stuffed in her pockets as her right hand played with her keys.

"Oh, is that alright? You just finished driving for work, didn't you?" Kagome inquired worriedly. Jade shrugged.

"Not a big deal. We weren't too busy today." Jade chirped, looking as mellow as can be.

"Trust me, Kagome. You want Jade to drive. It's a party when she's in charge." Sango stated with a grin.

"Party hardy, bitchesssssssss!" Jade sang with a lisp as she strutted to the door, waving her hips and twirling her keys around her finger helicopter-style. Kagome glanced at Sango with wide eyes and a nervous smile. Sango could only grin devilishly and nod in return.

"Haha, alright, alright." Kagome giggled, hooking her arm with Sango's as they followed Jade out of the apartment, down the stairs and towards her dark green car. Sango sat in the passenger seat and Kagome sat in the back.

"Did your pizzas have the circumference of a giant? Jeez, this seat is back far." Sango stated, reaching under the seat for the lever so she could scoot up and give Kagome more leg room. Jade slipped her sunglasses on and looked over at Sango.

"Oh, no, I had someone in my passenger seat the other day. Tall." Jade explained.

"You mean the guy who drew on your face?" Kagome asked curiously as she leaned forward.

"That's the bitch." Jade replied evenly.

"Someone drew on your face? Who?" Sango quickly turned serious as she stared at Jade expectantly.

"It was nothing. He's the grad student and he felt the need to exert his dominance. So I let him. No big deal." Jade clarified calmly, her hand gracefully moving through the air to match her syllables.

"Do I need to exert my dominance over him?" Sango asked slyly as she placed her fist in the palm of her other hand, cracking her knuckles. Jade giggled as a scene of Sango beating Naraku into a crippled mess played throughout her head.

"If he's bullying you, we can do something about it." Kagome added softly.

"He's not bullying me. He thinks he is, but he's not. I'm….I can handle it. I promise." Jade insisted as she turned her car on. She plugged her MP3 player in, having restored it to its state before Naraku decided to test her patience.

"I need to get you back to the gym so I can teach you some moves," Sango said, throwing out a few light punches and finishing with a stabbing motion of her elbow.

"Okay. Here you go," Jade chirped, handing Sango her MP3 so she could quietly change subjects. It was her evening off. Jade didn't want to think about Naraku. Not after what he did to her the previous day.

"Why is your music so damn organized?" Sango whined jealously. Kagome leaned forward and immediately saw what Sango meant. Every folder had more folders inside, labeled specifically. Playlist for running. Playlist for driving angry. Playlist for a calm drive. Playlist for getting hype.

"Wow." Kagome murmured.

"What do you want to listen to, Kagome?" Sango asked.

"Mmm, I don't care. Something energetic, I guess?" Kagome answered.

"Getting Hype will provide plenty of that." Jade said, backing out of her parking space. Kagome leaned back and put her seatbelt on, but still leaning forward to see the playlists.

"So will Crunk Rap." Sango retorted, scrolling to find that particular playlist. It wasn't that she liked rap music; it was that Jade channeled all music through her body and became an entertainment source for driving. Sango tapped a song and placed the MP3 in her lap, reaching forward to turn up the volume. Kagome sat back and watched as the laid back beat rolled in, Jade immediately bobbing her head to it. She rolled down all the windows and mouthed the words of the song. Sango let the song play for a few more seconds before immediately switching the song. Jade's movements fluidly moved to the new beat as she energetically acted out the lyrics.

"Oh wow, is this really her?" Kagome asked, poking the usually-quiet roommate's arm to make sure she was real.

"To the windoooooooooooooow! The wall!" Jade yelled loudly, point from one direction to the other while her other hand remained on the steering wheel. Sango had joined in the dance with her, laughing as Jade started shaking her head from side to side after stopping at a stop light. Her favorite thing to do was to freak out the people in the vehicle beside hers. Sango leaned forward and saw the family in the next car over shake their heads and point back at them.

Three songs and several dance sequences from Jade later, the three roommates arrived at the mall. Jade parked her car in the first space she could find. They all stepped out of the car and headed towards the mall, Sango and Kagome chatting lightly with each other and Jade standing a few feet back, her hands shoved into her pockets. Jade quickly pulled her hair into a ponytail, placing her hands back into her pockets. Kagome turned back to her and held her hand out to Jade.

"Come on! Walk with us!" Kagome insisted. Jade slinked forward and Kagome hooked her arm with Jade's.

"Alright, so where are we eating?" Sango asked aloud.

"I don't know." Kagome answered.

"Someplace that has food." Jade said.

"Thanks, Jade. Very helpful." Sango replied sarcastically.

"I do what I can." Jade chirped.

"I'd suggest pizza, but Jade probably," Kagome trailed off with a giggle.

"I'll fucking kill myself." Jade added in dryly.

"Alright, then. Deli sandwiches, burgers, steak," Sango listed off, raising her voice over Kagome's hysterical giggling at Jade's reaction to pizza.

"You choose something, Sango. We're indifferent. Except to pizza." Jade stated, her tone taking a false bitterness at the word, "pizza."

"I could go for a steak or grilled chicken." Sango said as she unhooked her arm from Kagome's grasp. She opened one of the glass doors that led into the mall, motioning for her two friends to walk in first.

"I can do that." Kagome agreed. Jade nodded and quietly followed her two roommates to the restaurant set up inside the mall. They were seated at a table within seconds of walking into the restaurant. Jade already knew what she wanted, so she unlocked her phone and signed onto her Facebook account. She made a status and then quickly placed her phone down when Sango and Kagome began speaking.

"I'm going to regret what I'm about to order," Sango announced while shaking her head.

"You don't eat like this often."

"That's true."

"Well," Jade began, planning to say something clever, but she stopped when her phone began vibrating wildly. She thought she was receiving a call, but then she remembered that she was still logged into Facebook and now the notifications were blowing up her phone.

"Jeez, did you forget to deliver a bunch of pizzas?" Sango asked with a bewildered look on her face.

"Those are Facebook notifications. Did you post something political?" Kagome asked immediately after Sango.

"Oh, no. I posted about my stream later tonight." Jade explained, her phone still buzzing violently in her hand. Kagome and Sango looked at one another, sharing the same shocked expression. They slowly looked back at Jade.

"You mean people watch those?" Kagome questioned incredulously. She had watched her brother play video games, but she was always bored after a few minutes. Even Inuyasha and Miroku's frantic and mouthy playstyles got exhausting after watching them for five minutes.

"Yeah! Sometimes, people pay." Jade announced. Again, Kagome and Sango exchanged looks, this time their mouths had dropped open.

"You get paid to play video games while people watch? How?" Kagome insisted, almost ready to pick up a controller.

"Do they have to pay to watch?" Sango added.

"No, no. It's free to watch. You don't have to pay. We just take donations." Jade explained.

"But people pay, right?" Sango pushed, lowering her voice as if they were talking about something illegal.

"Oh yeah. How do you think I keep our internet so pristine?" Jade replied with a smug grin.

"Oh wow." Kagome said, her voice muffled through her hands as Sango threw hers up.

"Only you, Jade. Only you." Sango exhaled. Jade slowly looked at Kagome and then at Sango.

"What? At least I'm not dealing drugs." Jade argued. Kagome and Sango began laughing at her, shaking their heads.

"I used to think you were," Sango admitted while pointing at her friend.

"Really?" Kagome and Jade asked simultaneously.

"You just seemed like that type to me. I'm sorry." Sango insisted, wincing as she finished her sentence.

"Oh. I did it once. Got pulled over. Figured it wasn't for me." Jade told them calmly, taking a sip from her water. Again, Kagome and Sango snorted and laughed, but Jade knew they weren't being spiteful about it.

When they finished eating, Sango ran down to the pet store to grab toys for Kirara. Jade followed Kagome into a clothing store. Jade stood to the side, watching as Kagome brushed through the clearance rack, searching for a new shirt. Kagome pulled a shirt out and gave it a more thorough examination.

"What do you think, Jade?" Kagome asked, turning the shirt around to show.

"Nope." Jade said quickly. Kagome's mouth dropped open.

"Really?" she asked as she felt the blood rush to her cheeks.

"Nah, I'm just kidding. Um, it looks like a shirt." Jade tried again, shrugging slowly.

"Oh, you don't do this kind of thing?"

"Not really. I just wear stuff."

"I can see that. Well, I'm buying it."

"Go for it." Jade encouraged her indifferently. Kagome purchased the shirt and walked with Jade back out into the main corridor. Kagome spotted Sango heading towards them with her own purchase, so she stood off to the side, but Jade broke out into a sprint and Kagome saw a man running towards her, too.

"AAAAHOOOOOOOO!" the man howled, meeting Jade with an excited chest-bump. When they both landed, they high-fived each other and the man began jumping in place.

"You going to Nats?" he asked excitedly. Kagome thought he was going to faint.

"Maybe. We'll see how good I am tonight."

"Sweet, sweet! See you then!" the man stated before running off, meeting back up with his friends who seemed equally excited about something.

"Who was that?" Sango asked Jade, who shrugged.

"No idea. Probably one of my viewers." Jade replied nonchalantly. Sango gave one slow nod, her twisted expression saying everything she couldn't. Jade waved her hands and laughed.

"Let's go work off that steak," Jade suggested slyly, pointing in the direction of the arcade. Sango immediately knew what that meant and smirked.

"Why? So I can stomp you at DDR again?" Sango asked haughtily as she crossed her arms.

"Yesssss!" Jade began bouncing in place.

"Alright, I guess we have time for a round. You want to play, Kagome?"

"No, I'll just watch." Kagome insisted, taking Sango's bag of cat toys and watching as the two women sprinted off in the direction of the arcade. Kagome followed them at a more leisurely place. She figured they would start by the time she reached them. As she predicted, they both were standing on the dance pads right when she walked in. A small crowd had already gathered around them.

"Don't cry when I beat you," Sango told Jade, lightly jumping from one foot the other.

"Okay, I won't." Jade replied. The music kicked in and both women began stomping away on the dance pad. Kagome noticed they both chose the hardest possible difficulty, but they both seemed to be competent with the speed and patterns. Sango's stance was serious; she was in it to win it. Jade's was a little more fluid and carefree. Kagome checked her watch to make sure they weren't going to be late and then smiled when she heard the crowd cheering for her friends.

"Aaaahoooooo! Weed wolf!" a few people howled simultaneously. Kagome looked over at them with a frown. They were standing on Jade's side. Kagome looked at Jade's back and noticed there was more font on the back of her shirt. She squinted a bit, but she was able to make out the letters despite Jade's hasty movements. It spelled out, "WeedWolf."

 _'Oh, that's why they're howling at her.'_ Kagome thought to herself, the realization hitting her like a train. The Pack must have been Koga's gaming community and "WeedWolf" must have been Jade's nickname. But, then Kagome's face twisted with a mixture between a frown and a smile. Jade said she tried drug dealing once and then insisted it wasn't for her.

The song ended and Sango had won the match, but not by much. Jade pointed at Sango and insisted her fans howl for her instead, so they did and Sango bowed victoriously. They both stepped off the platforms and walked over to Kagome, who was clapping for them while laughing.

"You're both crazy." Kagome insisted, handing the bag of cat toys to Sango.

"I feel better about that steak now." Sango insisted.

"So, WeedWolf, huh?" Kagome asked Jade slyly.

"What? It's just my nickname." Jade explained with a smile.

"Is it?" Kagome pressed further, now crossing her arms. Sango gulped. She had her own suspicions about Jade, but she knew Kagome was far more rigid about drugs than she was.

"Nah, I smoke. But, not at our apartment out of respect for both of you." Jade stated, crossing her own arms. Kagome shook her head, but she finally exhaled and her expression lightened.

"As long as you keep it away from me,"

"Yoooooou didn't even know until I wore this shirt. That's how low I keep it." Jade pointed out, turning and walking away. Sango and Kagome followed quickly.

"So, why did you wear the shirt?" Kagome asked, raising her voice over the crowd walking through the mall. Immediately, someone across the mall corridor howled, screaming, "WeedWolf," as if it were their last chance on Earth to speak. Jade pointed and waved in their general direction.

"Advertising." Jade answered simply.

000000

Jade sat down at her desk, two monitors and a laptop glowing with activity in front of her. She had two keyboards with glowing keys and a webcam sitting on one of the monitors. She had music playing for her waiting fans and a countdown on her stream channel to help build up the anticipation. She hadn't streamed for a while and she was almost as popular as Koga, so her chatroom was exploding and moving so fast that she couldn't keep up with reading it. She figured she would slow it down once her chatroom moderators were ready.

"Alright, the Internet bill is paid off now," Jade snickered to herself when she checked her donation box online. Her most faithful viewers had already thrown some money her way and she hadn't even picked up her controller. But, Jade knew better than to get too greedy. Most of what she earned when streaming under her community's name went to the community as a whole to be given to anyone who may need new equipment. If no new equipment was needed, then the money was usually given to a charity. She was the community's accountant. The money was under her control and the only other person who had access to the account was Koga.

"Almost there," Jade murmured, tapping her fingers to the beat of the song playing, which was synched up as her countdown song. When it ended, her night began. Jade had finished her sound checks, her visual checks, and made sure her camera was synched with her stream perfectly. Just a few more seconds now. Jade pulled her headset on her head and loaded up the game. The countdown hit zero and the song played its last note. When she switched monitors, her fans could now see her face up in the corner of the screen.

"Ayyyyyy! This is your friendly WeedWolf streaming live for The Pack! Let's see if I'm KI competition material tonight, shall we?" Jade stated with a grin, wiggling her eyebrows seductively. She leaned forward and saw the chatroom explode with, "AAAHHHOOOOOO" and "WeedWolf!" Jade nodded. She had a few thousand viewers at the moment and it usually climbed after she started playing. She grabbed her arcade stick and placed it in her lap, choosing the option to "fight" online against other players.

"Of course I'm taking my werewolf." Jade answered, spotting someone asking in the chatroom if she was going to main "the wolf" in competitions. Jade chose said werewolf character and chose her favorite costume of his; the mad scientist. When she did, the chatroom exploded with more howls and calls of "WeedWolf." Jade started laughing, waiting for her opponent to choose their character and choose the stage.

"First blood!" Jade shouted as the match started, her werewolf diving forward and catching her opponent's skeleton fighter with a right-handed slash, leading into a short combo and building her meter for more powerful attacks and combos. The skeleton swung its sword and Jade blocked it and the rest of its combo before commanding her werewolf to bite the skeleton and begin another combo.

"You're nothing but bones! I'm a wolf-dog!" Jade stated in a goofy, ferocious voice as the werewolf dived between the skeletons legs, rising up behind it and continuing the hard-to-break combo. She then used her stored meter to begin a combo and take the rest of the skeleton's life-bar, ending the first round. She looked at her chatroom and smirked. It was exploding once more with howls. So, she hit the taunt button to make her werewolf howl in response to them and amp them up more. The more amped they were, the more likely they were to donate.

' _Much better,'_ Jade thought when a notification appeared on her screen to let her know someone donated money.

000000

 _'One, two, three, four, five,'_ Naraku counted off in his head as he laid the bills down individually on his table. He made several more deals and sold some bits and pieces of gold and silver from the jewelry he had no use for. He already paid off his rent earlier thanks to money he already saved up, but now he was making sure the rest of his bills were covered.

"Five and eighty-three. That will do nicely." Naraku said to himself with a smile, taking a sip of tea from his cup. He organized the bills in ascending order before folding them up and placing them in a box. He put a lid on the box and carried it to his bedroom, placing it in the top drawer of his dresser and closed the drawer. Naraku walked back into his living room and sat back down at his table, finishing off his cup of tea and looking out the sliding-glass doors which led to his patio. He twisted the little tea cup in his fingers, his mind gone blank for a moment once he realized he had nothing more to do. Bills were settled, rent was paid, deals were made, and he no weed leftover for himself….what was he supposed to do now? This was his last free evening for a few days. This was going to be his last chance to sleep for a few days, too.

"Hm," Naraku looked to his right when he heard the sound of metallic bars being bitten. He saw his furry hostage chewing on the bars of its cage, but not out of hunger.

"I just fed you." Naraku said to the rodent, placing his cup down on the table and standing up. The guinea pig squeaked in response to his movements. Naraku rolled his eyes, but he walked over to the cage and reached down, scooping up the gray fur-ball with a single hand and pulling it to his chest. The guinea pig purred with satisfaction and snuggled his chest, making no other noises for the moment. Naraku sat down on his couch, letting out a long sigh. He hadn't meant to keep the rodent this long. He took it from the lab months ago. Bruce bought the critter to "liven" up the lab and maybe encourage students to work longer knowing that another living, breathing thing was right there with them. Naraku, not wanting any joy to be had in the lab, took the guinea pig home and then told Bruce that he gave it to the Biology department to feed to their snakes. Bruce got mad. Naraku laughed. Same old situation.

"Ow." Naraku hissed when the guinea pig nipped his hand. When he looked down at the gray critter, it gave a few annoyed squeals before leaping up to his shoulder and settling down. Naraku gave it a single pat on its head before grabbing his remote and turning on his TV. The guinea pig preferred sitting on his shoulder more than any other part of his body. This didn't bother Naraku because it was out of sight and quiet when this happened.

"I suppose I'll return you this week." Naraku said aloud, knowing the guinea pig couldn't understand him. He also knew he was lying. He said he would return it every week since he kidnapped it, or pignapped it, and he never followed through with returning it. Naraku frowned when he actually gave that some thought. Why did he keep the pig? He hated animals. Bruce had already moved on from it, so it wasn't that he was receiving any reactions from Bruce about it. All the creature did was squeak when it demanded food or attention and then it would shit. That was it. It didn't even have a name, as far as Naraku knew. Bruce commanded the lab to think of a name, but the next day, the pig had been "eaten by a snake."

"I'll return you this week." Naraku said again with an exhale, flipping through the channels mindlessly. The guinea pig was already asleep, as if it already knew it was a lie.


	5. Deprivations

**Deprivations**

 **A/N** – Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. It means a lot. And thanks to my friend, FairTomato, for editing my story so far. I hope everyone is enjoying it and all I can say is make sure you're buckled in. Hands up in the air. Let's ride this coaster together. I'm having fun.

Jade finished sweeping all of the crumbs, shredded cheese, dirt, and other various items into a pile in the center of the kitchen. Ginta had already cleaned the counters and the ovens, swiping all of the excess crumbs onto the floor for her to sweep up. He threw the rag he used to wipe the counters and the outsides of ovens into a basket. He opened all of the oven doors before stepping back, fanning his face with his hand.

"I think I'll open the door. The heat from these is starting to cook me." Ginta sighed, turning around and walking to the back door. He squeezed past the refrigerators and opened the back door which led to the dumpsters and the small parking lot for the restaurant. He exhaled loudly when his skin was met with warm moisture, which signaled the approach of rain.

"It's probably not much better out there." Jade commented. Her last delivery was less than an hour ago. She remembered it feeling humid. Ginta nodded.

"Nope. It's quite disgusting out here, actually." Ginta announced, backing away from the door and deciding to leave it open. It was still better to let the heat escape from the building, even if it would be replaced with humidity.

"Do we still have that fan?" Jade asked, sweeping her finished pile of dirt and food into a dust pan that she held down with her foot.

"Um, good question," Ginta said as he strode across the kitchen to a small space where two doors sat. One was the closet for cleaning materials and one was the closet that held random tools for fixing or replacing items. He opened the random closet and spotted the box fan. He assumed that was the one Jade asked about, so he grabbed it and gently kicked the door closed behind him.

"If Koga cares about his life, he better get back here soon. This would go so much faster with three people," Jade stated bitterly, tying up the fourth and final trash bag and carrying it to the door. She placed it by the door on the inside. She didn't feel like making multiple trips to and from the dumpster, so she decided to gather all the trash and toss them away in one trip.

"He said something about grabbing food," Ginta stated, grunting as he reached down to plug in the fan, which he placed on the main counter where the registers sat, aiming it towards the kitchen to push the hot air towards the back door. He could have easily squatted down to plug the fan in, but Koga insisted on a full-body lift the previous day at the gym, plus sprinting. Every muscle in Ginta's body was tight and tortured, so squatting was not going to happen for a few days.

"He always leaves for food when we close and start cleaning." Jade reminded Ginta, who ran his fingers through his short silver hair, which was matted to his head with sweat.

"I know. It usually doesn't bother me when Hakkaku is here to help, but, oh well. I won't care when I start eating."

"Food won't make me forget this." Jade grumbled, leaning back against a counter while swinging the broom side to side in the air. Ginta snickered and shook his head, a toothy grin pulled onto his face.

"You seem to be in a mood tonight. What's wrong?" he asked curiously. Jade's lips pulled into a deeper pout. She hadn't noticed she was in a "mood." She felt fine, but apparently, her words spoke the opposite.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because tonight was supposed to be my other night off. I wanted to do a personal stream for extra money in my pocket."

"Did you not make enough tonight?"

"I made enough tonight, but I would have made more from a personal stream. My viewers tip better than customers." Jade pointed out, now mindlessly sweeping the floor in front of her, brushing invisible dirt into an invisible pile.

"Fair enough, but you know how Koga feels about personal streams,"

"I get it. The more the community has, the better the community operates, but I now have two jobs, three if you count the community, which I do a lot of work for, Ginta. Don't deprive me of money I could easily have." Jade said warningly.

"I know, I know,"

"I don't get extra payment for any of the editing I do for videos, I don't receive anything for the graphics we use in our streams, the little emoticons are my design, I have to handle the community money and make sure everyone gets their cut, the music synching, camera synching, and not to mention, I have to actually be good at the video games I play, which requires time and practice. I work five hours for five days a week in the lab, then I work six hours here five nights a week and then an additional six hours during the day on the weekends. All I ask is that weekend evenings are mine." Jade explained, her tone taking on more of a harsher tone than she meant it to.

"Well, I don't think Hakkaku purposely meant to get sick." Ginta said, having a hard time keeping his voice steady. It wasn't often Jade was upset, but when she was, he didn't know what to expect. He had never seen her explode, but she wasn't kind when angry, either.

"We have other workers. They asked for weekend evenings off. I get it. So did I."

"Maybe Koga feels better asking you to come in because you're his friend."

"Probably." Jade agreed, leaning over to one of the ovens and reaching inside it to test the temperature. It was still too hot.

"So, how is that lab job going? I don't hear you talk about it much." Ginta questioned as he walked to the back of the kitchen towards the sink. He began filling up a tub with soap and water to use to clean the ovens. He heard Jade make a loud groaning sound and then slap the broom against the wall.

"It's fine. It's laid back. It's my co-worker who isn't." Jade replied bitterly.

"That bad?"

"Dude, I can't even begin to describe him. There aren't enough words in any language."

"I feel that way with Koga." Ginta laughed, dropping a few scrubbing sponges into the warm, soapy water.

"No, Koga isn't even comparable on his worst days in his worst moods. I can still reason with him. This guy….there is no reasoning, even if he's in a good mood."

"Oh. Do you not feel safe with him?" Ginta asked, turning to Jade with a worried look on his face. Jade laughed and then sighed hopelessly.

"I don't think he'd injure me, but he came close the other day."

"Do you carry a knife? Or mace? I have both if you want to borrow them." Ginta told her.

"He's a legitimate masochist." Jade responded as she placed the broom back into the cleaning closet, along with the dust pan. The image of Naraku grinning after she struck him with a stick surfaced in her head again. She hadn't meant to hit him, but she still swung it. And he liked it. A lot.

"Oh….damn it." Ginta whined. Jade shrugged at him before turning back into the closet, grabbing two pairs of gloves and tossing a pair to Ginta.

"Plus, I don't think I could hurt him on purpose. I'm not like that." Jade said after pulling her pair of gloves on. Ginta nodded as he pulled his gloves on, too. He patted her shoulder soothingly before lifting the tub of water, grunting and groaning when he felt the stinging pain of soreness ring throughout his body. He toughed through it, quickly walking to the closest oven and placing the tub on the counter. Ginta panted as he wiped his sleeve across his forehead, pouting when he heard Jade snickering at him.

"It hurts." He told her with a whimper, rubbing his arms with his hands.

"I see Koga put you through the business," Jade said with a smile, remembering how sore she was after Sango introduced her to, "Leg Day."

"Woman, you have no idea," Ginta replied, grunting as he slowly squatted, hanging onto the counter with both hands to keep him steady. Once his knees bent entirely, they both popped loudly and he gasped when he realized he couldn't stand or lower himself any further. Jade bit her lips together, trying to fight away a smile and laugh, but Ginta was so pitiful sometimes. It was kind of adorable. And hilarious.

"Need help?" Jade asked him knowingly.

"Yeeeeeesssssss," he cried out dramatically. Jade walked over and stood behind him. She hooked her arms under his and slowly pulled him up into a standing position. Ginta moaned and mumbled as he bent forward, rubbing his knees.

"How about you clean the top ovens and I'll clean the bottom ones?" Jade suggested with a laugh.

"Stop laughing at me!" Ginta whined again, which only made Jade laugh harder.

Jade was still snickering and cackling at Ginta when they finished cleaning the ovens and mopping the floors. They had taken the trash to the dumpster, but Jade still had to actually toss the trash bags in the dumpster because Ginta couldn't lift his arms past his stomach by that point. They slowly walked to her car, which she parked directly in back. Ginta sat on the hood while Jade lowered her windows and began playing some music.

"Where the hell is Koga?" Ginta asked angrily.

"He'll show up now that the cleaning is done." Jade chirped as she sat beside him on her hood. She found it amusing that she and Ginta had swapped moods now.

"I'd punch him if I could."

"Yeah, might want to hold off on that," Jade replied, patting him on the shoulder gently.

As if he physically heard the threat, Koga came swinging around the lot in his car, music blasting so loudly it could be heard despite the windows being rolled up. His car was a dark blue and it had blue neon lights set up underneath it.

"Hey losers," Koga called out after turning his car off and stepping out of his vehicle.

"Don't talk to me right now." Ginta replied crossly. Koga looked at Jade with confusion, pointing at Ginta as if to ask, "What's his problem?"

"Whatever you have, it better be good," Jade warned him. Koga held his finger up before he opened his back door, pulling out a few plastic sacks filled with his promised food.

"When have I let you guys down before?" Koga asked arrogantly.

"Well, I am working on my night off," Jade pointed out.

"I can't fucking lift my arms!" Ginta added on loudly. Koga chuckled as he approached his friends.

"Aw, poor Moon-Moon," Koga said to Ginta with pouted lips. Jade immediately began laughing.

"I'm not Moon-Moon!" Ginta shouted back.

"No, no you're Moon-Moon! Hahaha!" Jade agreed while holding her stomach. Koga gestured at Jade, as if she was the final decision-maker for nicknames.

"She has spoken." Koga said, pulling out a wrapped up sandwich and handing it to Jade. He handed one to Ginta, who ripped it out of his hand, only to moan and regret the movement when his sore arm rang with pain once more. Koga tossed them both a bag of chips before sitting down on the sidewalk in front of them, tearing into his own sandwich.

"No, seriously though, Koga. Fuck you." Jade stated as she unwrapped her sandwich and bit into it. Koga dramatically held his hands and sandwich up after biting into it.

"What did I do?" he asked frantically, his words slurring from the food in his mouth.

"Tonight is supposed to be my night off, douche."

"You're the only person who answered their phone!" Koga explained, catching a piece of lettuce that fell from his mouth.

"Because you called me from your personal cell instead of the work phone! We both know why!" Jade insisted loudly, laughing as she struck him in the head with the wadded up wrapping of her sandwich.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Koga laughed. He knew if he had called from the work phone, Jade wouldn't have answered, either. He wasn't an idiot.

"And thanks for being gone long enough so you wouldn't have to clean!" Ginta also threw his sandwich wrapping at Koga, nailing him in the cheek.

"Quit your crying, Moon-Moon!" Koga shouted back at him teasingly. Ginta rolled his eyes and took another bite of his sandwich.

"I hate this! Why am I Moon-Moon?" Ginta groaned after swallowing his food. Koga and Jade began snickering together.

"Because you're a giant fuck-up." Koga retorted dryly.

"Yeah, you do have a tendency to trip over your own shadow," Jade agreed calmly.

"Hakkaku sucks more than I do!" Ginta insisted. Jade and Koga glanced at one another skeptically.

"Mmm, that's debatable," Koga continued.

"Yeah, I don't know. We'll have to make marks on a calendar or something to check that hypothesis." Jade suggested, plopping a chip into her mouth and crunching it loudly. Koga snorted loudly in response to that proposal as he took another bite of food.

"Man, fuck you both." Ginta mumbled as he bit into his sandwich once more, shaking his head and looking away from his treacherous friends.

Once they finished eating, the manager, the delivery driver, and the cook all sat on the hood of the delivery driver's car, passing a joint between themselves. It was a ritual they practiced in the evenings. After a day's work and an evening's clean up, they would eat outside and smoke to relax and fight away the day's stresses.

"I wonder if we'll see another drug bust across the street," Ginta said with a grin. Koga and Jade chuckled and nodded their heads.

"That would awesome." Koga said, passing the joint to Ginta.

"I want to go to the KI Nationals." Jade announced, laying back on her hood.

"Do you want to go personally or with The Pack?"

"I don't care. I just want to go."

"Yeah, I kind of want to go, too." Ginta agreed, passing the joint back to Koga, who took a deep inhale from it, slowly nodding as he thought about his two friends' representing the community at a competition for a relatively popular game. They had done it before with Halo, Super Smash Bros, and Marvel VS Capcom, and it brought a lot of good attention to them.

"I would like for the three of us to go together, but that would require us to win some local competitions and win different regionals. We'd have to scatter."

"Not really. For local competitions, they usually make it to where if you make the top eight, you can move on to Regionals and in Regionals, if you make Top Eight, you move onto Nationals. They do this because they know that sometimes, a true champion player loses because of a bad button input, which isn't their fault, or something else that is uncontrollable, like having to leave the competition for an emergency. So, odds are, if you make it to Top Eight, you're a potential champion and can move to the next level." Jade explained as she sat up. Koga offered her the joint next and she plucked it from his fingers.

"Oh, so we could each enter the same competitions and each make it to the next level," Koga said with a smile.

"Well, you have to fight through the entrance pools, first. When you survive those, that's when you make Top Eight." Ginta told him.

"I've been through some competitions, Ginta. I know. I'm just saying we could do it. We're the best. Obviously."

"One of us is the best, Koga." Ginta corrected, pointing at Jade.

"Nah, I just know how to play against you two. Well, we all need competitive experience. I'll ask the arcade people in the mall and the other game shops around here and see if they're interested in hosting a little practice competition." Jade suggested as she passed the joint back to Koga.

"No, you do enough already. Ginta, you ask the game shops if they're willing to help us set something up." Koga insisted.

"Me? Why?" Ginta asked skeptically, looking at Koga as if he'd gone mad.

"Yeah, why are you sending in Moon-Moon?" Jade questioned shrewdly. Koga snorted loudly and Jade began laughing once more.

"Man, fuck you both!" Ginta groaned, but he was now smiling and laughing, too. Koga and Jade both patted him on the back, silently thanking him for being a good sport about their teasing. They even allowed him the last few puffs of the joint to end the night.

"How about this? I'll call and ask them myself. Then we'll go from there." Koga offered. Ginta and Jade both nodded at him and agreed. Koga stood up from Jade's hood, stretching his legs individually. He raised his arms above his head and turned back to his two friends. Jade had relaxed back on her hood, eyes closed. Koga looked at Ginta and then nodded towards Jade. Ginta's face twisted with confusion, but his eyes widened when he realized what Koga was insinuating. He ran his fingers through his hair, shaking his head and mouth the word, "No," vehemently. Koga rolled his eyes and shrugged.

"Hey Jade," Koga began, a wicked smirk pulling on his lips. Ginta's face started turning red as he shook his head.

"Hm?" Jade asked.

"Are you going to need a ride home? You're looking pretty tired."

"I'm fine." Jade replied with a yawn, sitting up and stretching her arms. Ginta cast a glare at Koga, but he looked down when Jade looked over at him.

"Alright. I guess we can wait here a little while longer. I work the later shift with you guys tomorrow." Koga stated, stifling a yawn with his hand.

"Yeah, I'm not in a hurry for tomorrow, either." Jade said with a forced laugh.

000000

Naraku glanced at his watch as he marched around the hallways of the Science Building. The building was essentially a rectangle and the main hallways made a boxed figure-8 path. The secret hallways which connected some of the classrooms were narrow and ran straight along either side of the building.

 _'Thirty minutes to go.'_ He told himself. It was Day Two of his extraction process of the samples that were sent to him and Bruce. He had been awake for a day and a half now. Fraction One of the extraction took him the better half of the first day and Fraction Two took the rest of that day and was going to steal away this day, too. Fraction Three would be simpler and take half a day, and Fraction Four could eat him as far as he cared at this point. Caffeine was no longer giving him the energy he needed, so to stay awake while his samples shook for two hours, he was walking laps. Naraku turned a corner, hands stuffed into the pockets of the white lab coat he was wearing. He spotted a professor from another department chatting away on his phone as he pressed the call button for the elevator. He nodded familiarly at Naraku, who nodded back.

 _'That should do.'_ He told himself when he turned down the long hallway that led to his lab. He needed to start prepping for the next step. Naraku saw the door was ajar and slowed his approach, trying to remember if he closed it or not. It wasn't a big deal during the summer, but Naraku was usually the one who told others to close the door if they were leaving and no one else was there. He opened the door wide enough so he could walk in and froze when he saw Jade standing at the table, leaned over his notes.

 _'She came back.'_ He thought, finally blinking after what seemed like years. His eyes already stung from the lack of sleep, so staring at her didn't help. Jade looked up, smiling slightly as she waved at him.

"Good morning." She said. She watched as Naraku turned his head to the side, as if he had no idea what she just said. He stared at her, a thoughtful look gracing his face.

 _'It's nice to see something other than malice on his face.'_ Jade thought.

"You're here….early." Naraku finally said. Jade nodded and shrugged.

"You look like you've been here a while," she replied with a giggle, pointing at him and then waving up and down his body. Naraku's hand rose to his face, feeling the bags under his eyes. He dragged his fingers down his cheek and felt the stubbles of an oncoming beard. Next, he looked down at his washed-out blue jeans, black T-shirt with bleach stains, and white running shoes.

"I don't look that bad." Naraku said in a low voice. Jade held back a laugh. She had a feeling he really cared about his looks.

"I didn't say bad; I meant tired." Jade corrected him. Naraku nodded and walked behind her towards the fume hood at the back of the room. Naraku flipped the two switches, one for the light and the other for the exhaust fan to start sucking out the fumes from the solution he had waiting for the samples.

 _'Not a talkative fellow today, are we?'_ Jade thought to herself, watching Naraku tinker around with a pipette. He placed it inside the fume hood on a piece of paper towel beside the solution, pulling the glass screen back down to prevent the fumes. Jade remembered Bruce telling her that once Naraku found something to work on, he was a different person. She exhaled quietly and looked at the bottles next to Naraku's notes. There were quite a few; over seventy if she remembered correctly. They were halfway filled with a liquid that had taken on a rusty orange color.

"So, you decant all of the solution into these?" Jade asked, pointing at the little bottles. Naraku was opening different drawers and cabinets, seemingly searching for something.

"Yes. Each fraction is extracting a different type of phosphorus from the samples. I have bottles filled from Fraction One, those are Fraction Two, and I have Fraction Three prepared, but Fraction Four," Naraku trailed off, opening another cabinet. He sighed heavily and shook his head.

"Need help with anything?" Jade finally relented. She told herself not to give into him, but she couldn't stand not doing anything. Naraku looked at her and blinked, his gaze quickly falling to the floor. Jade wondered if he had fallen brain dead for the moment.

"I found more bottles for Fraction Four, but they need to be cleaned with acid. Do you know how?"

"I'm imagining scrubbing at them like dishes while my skin melts off." She answered, scrubbing an invisible plate with her hand.

"No. It's simpler, actually. And less painful." Naraku replied, reaching into the cabinet and pulling out a giant bag of bottles. Jade had never seen such a huge collection of bottles before. It was almost comical. There must have been hundreds of them in the sack.

"I assume just seventy of them?" she asked.

"Seventy-seven. I haven't lost a sample….yet." Naraku corrected her.

"Wait. I thought it was only seventy-three or something?"

"Seventy-three samples, yes, with two blanks and two standards. So, I need seventy-seven bottles."

"Two blanks and two standards?" Jade repeated as she stared at the table. She vaguely knew what that meant.

"For me to measure the amount of phosphorus in these samples, I need a curve to compare it to. Otherwise, saying I had this much phosphorus in this sample doesn't mean much. I need to scale it. The standards hold the scaled amounts I'm comparing the sample amounts to."

"I'm going to pretend I understood that." Jade stated with a laugh as took the bag of bottles from his hands, moving to the other side of the table so she wouldn't disturb his notes or current bottles.

"You will figure it out." Naraku said, walking over to his notes and picking up his pen. He used the pen to point at the words he needed to read. He listened to the soft clatter of bottles as Jade counted them out on the table across from him. Naraku checked his watch again and sighed. He still had a bit longer and at this point, every minute felt like a year.

"Alright, I counted out eighty just in case," Jade announced, carrying the bag of bottles back to the cabinet and stuffing the bag inside. Naraku smirked and snorted quietly.

"Good. You're thinking ahead. Now, all of those bottles need to be filled with cleaning acid."

"Riiiiiiight," Jade sang, motioning for him to continue. He put too much faith into her intelligence.

"I already have it set up in the storage room. Fill the bottles with it and then," Naraku stopped talking when he saw Jade glance at the storage room and then slowly turn her head back to him. Her facial expression remained the same, but her eyes….those green eyes held Hellfire within them once more. Naraku smirked and nodded his head. He knew.

"What do I do with them after I fill them up?" Jade questioned, her tone taking a dangerous edge to it. Naraku tried to fight his smile away, but he only ended up snorting as he held back laughter. Jade rolled her eyes and allowed him to have his moment. She could tell he wasn't really able to control himself.

"Heh, well, you have two options; put them in the oven for a day or shove them up my ass for revenge's sake." Naraku suggested, wiping a tear from his eye, his smile as wide as possible.

"I'll think about it." Jade sighed, walking to the sink. Hanging over the sink on hooks were two plastic tubs. They looked like they could hold the bottles quite nicely, so she grabbed them and carried them back to the table, placing the bottles inside them. After grabbing a set of gloves and a pair of goggles, she carried the bottles into the storage room. Sitting on the edge of the sink was a five-gallon jug with a spout to pour the liquid into another container. Usually, these were filled with water, but she figured since Naraku mentioned, "cleaning acid," she probably shouldn't drink it.

When Jade entered the storage room, Naraku checked his watch once more, standing in front of the shaker where his samples waited out their last minutes of movement. Naraku shifted side to side with the rhythm of the shaker, his head following his movements in the opposite direction. The movement kept him awake.

"Oh Goddamn it! This smells like HCl acid!" Jade's angered voice rang from the storage room. Naraku immediately began laughing. He didn't have time to even try to hold it back, nor did he want to.

"Haha, it's diluted HCl acid, dear. It won't hurt you. Though, I still wouldn't breathe it in." Naraku replied, glancing towards the door, expecting to see her fly out and throw acid-filled bottles at him. But, she didn't. Naraku heard her cough and curse again, but she seemed to be fine with the task. Otherwise, she would have told him no, he imagined.

"Did you dilute it with one milliliter of water? This is still pretty strong, dude!" Jade coughed again, tightening the cap on another filled bottle and placing it back down in the plastic tub. Jade filled another bottle while holding her breath, screwing the cap on and exhaling. She felt a finger tap her shoulder and she quickly turned, seeing Naraku standing behind her with a smirk on his face. He held up his other hand, a face mask dangling from his index and middle fingers. Jade stared at it for a moment and then back at him. When she reached for the mask, she expected him to jerk it away from her, but he didn't. He let go of the string without even a second thought and stayed long enough for her to pull the mask over her nose and mouth.

"Thanks. I didn't know we had these." Jade said, poking the mask with a single finger.

"Second drawer to the left of the sink in the main room." Naraku told her. He reached up and stuck a single finger under the string of the mask, and with one single jerk of his hand, snapped the string. The mask fell from Jade's face, floating to the floor pathetically. Jade could only stare at him while trying to fight away a smirk. He was insatiable.

"Thaaaaaaanks." Jade replied dryly, her shoulders slumped. Naraku winked at her before turning around and walking out of the room to take his samples off the shaker and begin decanting the liquid solution from them. Jade followed him and walked to the drawer he told her about, pulling it open and spotting the box of face masks.

' _At least he cared enough to tell me about them.'_ Jade thought with a giggle. She grabbed another mask and walked back into the storage room to finish filling the bottles without choking.

After placing the bottles in the oven and setting it to the needed temperature, Jade walked back to the table and sat down across from Naraku, watching him actually do work. She never doubted that he was good at lab work, but she had only seen him read and study articles or organize the materials in the lab. He organized materials so often that Bruce said he stopped trying to remember where lab items were a long time ago. Jade noticed small things moved around, too, but not to the extent that she couldn't eventually find them.

' _He's not human. He can't be.'_ Jade told herself quietly, watching Naraku's swift and smooth movements as he pipetted a solution into the tubes holding the samples. He would stick the pipette into the solution and suck up the needed amount, which the pipette was already set to absorb. Then he would inject it into a tube. Suck up more. Inject. Over and over he did this without losing momentum or messing up. Jade knew she would be moving slower than him and probably would have injected into one tube twice or something. But he was focused, determined. Naraku injected solution into the last tube and placed the pipette back into the solution jar, which was now empty.

"You made just enough of that, huh?" Jade asked, flicking the empty jar with her middle finger.

"I used a simple calculation to figure out how much I would need. I don't like making excess solution." Naraku replied, now placing caps back on the tubes. Jade saw that beside the foam holders, which held the tubes upright, Naraku had taken off and placed all of the caps in the appropriate order right beside the tubes. That way, a cap was placed back on the tube it belonged to. Jade stood up and walked around to the second foam holder, grabbing the cap from the top left and grabbing the top left tube, quickly tightening it on and making sure she twisted it as far as it would go. Naraku glanced at her, but he said nothing, continuing with his portion of the cap-less tubes.

"I could see this getting annoying after a while," Jade announced, scratching her cheek after an itch surfaced.

"See what?"

"Taking off and putting on caps."

"You have no idea." Naraku chuckled, but Jade could almost feel the annoyance emanating from his body. She imagined it would be stressful. He had seventy-seven tubes of samples, taking those on and off for each step. Then he had seventy-seven bottles for decanted solutions from the samples, meaning another seventy-seven caps to take off and put back on. Four total fractions, each divided by multiple steps. Jade felt annoyed just thinking about it.

"Now we break up the sample. We want every particle to react with the solution." Naraku explained, grabbing a handful of tubes and harshly tapping the tips against the table. Jade glanced at the centrifuge behind him and then back at him.

"Sooooo….you break up the sample to react and then centrifuge them when you want to decant, which makes it harder to break up the sample," Jade recited, trying to probe him for some kind of emotion.

"When I decant, I want the sample to be cemented at the bottom so none of it pours out. When I want it to react, I want the sample to be unstuck from the bottom. It's a process." Naraku corrected her, closely examining a tube to see if he loosened the sample. Jade grabbled a couple of tubes and began tapping them against the table, too.

"That's annoying." Jade chirped.

"Are you trying to sympathize with me?" Naraku asked suspiciously.

"Nooooooo," she sang sarcastically.

"Stop it. Don't you have an experiment to set up and perform?"

"Yeah, but that won't take me long. I can still help you." Jade insisted. Naraku stopped banging his samples on the table and exhaled.

"Do your work first."

"But,"

"Go on. If it won't take you long, then you'll finish in time to do whatever." Naraku told her, motioning for her to place the samples she held back into the slots of the foam holder.

"Not do whatever. I just wanted to help. That's it." Jade explained to him as she placed the samples back into the slots.

"Who said I wanted help?" Naraku asked, now looking down at her. Jade held her hand to him, her face almost saying "This motherfucker" for her.

"You're unbelievable. Have you slept?"

"Stop asking about me. Go to work."

"You're the one who kept saying that I was going to be your assistant. How can I be your assistant if you won't let me help and learn?" Jade pointed out, now crossing her arms. Naraku placed his loosed samples into the slots, keeping the cemented ones in his hand.

"I don't think you understand. I want you to be my lab assistant; I don't want your help." Naraku stated carefully, looking down when he realized his accent was completely obvious in that last statement. He couldn't look at Jade. He didn't want to. It had been so long since he heard his Japanese accent when speaking. He had worked so hard to force it away, but it would pop back into his speech every now and then.

' _Here is her chance to take me down,'_ he thought to himself.

"You need help." Jade stated with a heavy sigh, walking away to begin setting up her experiment. Naraku gritted his teeth and glared at her.

"I don't need help! I can do all of this myself!" Naraku snapped, no longer caring if his accent was audible or not. Jade turned back to him while frowning.

' _He's obviously not on his game today. Just let it go, Jade.'_ She told herself. She inhaled through her nose deeply and exhaled.

"Alright, then." Jade said to him, casting him half a smile. Naraku waited for her to turn her back to him before making a gagging expression, a violent shiver raking over his entire body and driving straight to his core. She pitied him? She pitied him!

' _I'd prefer a kick to the nuts.'_ He admitted silently, grabbing a few more samples and hitting them against the table much harder than before. Jade watched him for a moment before she began reading her notes and checking her equipment. She willed herself not to say anything to him. She figured he was beyond any kind of reasoning.

' _He wants me to be his assistant, but not help him? What does that….oh,'_ The realization hit Jade like a truck. He didn't want her to volunteer; he wanted to force her to help him against her will. The smile that stretched on her lips at that moment was wide, wicked, and wondrous. All she could do was shake her head. She couldn't even think about what she was writing down on her notes. Naraku's eyes met hers and his eyebrows furrowed with confusion.

"What?" he asked her.

"You're amazing." Jade responded, lowering her gaze back to her notes, forcing herself to shut up and keep writing. Naraku blinked, ceasing his physical abuse of the samples in his hand.

"I'm amazing?" he repeated questioningly, trying to urge her to continue. But, Jade shook her head once more and continued with her experiment, saying nothing more to the sleep-deprived grad student.

000000

Naraku paced back and forth in the lab in front of his shaking samples, hands grabbed onto his hair as he tugged at the strands harshly. He was entering two straight days with no sleep and barely any food to eat, so he was doing anything to keep himself awake for the next step. Once he finished that step, he was finished with that fraction and could allow himself some sleep before moving onto the next fraction. It wasn't that Naraku had never stayed awake for days on end, but he was able to conserve his energy and keep his stomach full in those instances. The situation was different when he stayed busy and didn't eat.

"Thirty minutes, thirty minutes," he told himself quietly. It was almost five in the morning, so the Science Building was asleep and mostly empty except for him and maybe one other person who was probably also asleep in their lab. Naraku gave his hair another yank when he closed his eyes and sensed how hard it was to open them. When he opened them, they rested on the other side of the table where Jade's experiment was sitting. She had to let it sit overnight so it would fully react. Naraku walked over to her experiment and moved the items around, wondering if she would even notice. He pulled his pen from his pocket and scribbled a dick in the corner of her notes. Even though he was a capable artist, he was certain that he couldn't handle any complicated images, otherwise his brain would have a meltdown.

"Decant, go to sleep," He told himself, thickening the lines of the dick so that the image was engraved onto the few pages beneath it. He capped the pen and placed it back into his pocket, but his eyes remained focused on her handwriting. Naraku sat on the stool and stared down at her notes, spotting a few question marks she scribbled beside some text.

 _'So studious. It almost sickens me.'_ He thought wryly, ripping his eyes away from her notes. He remembered the sickening feeling he felt earlier when she kept asking him about the extraction process. And how she kept saying certain things must have annoyed him….was she planning something?

 _'Is she searching for something to use against me? A crack in my armor?'_ Naraku wondered, now crossing his arms. His leg began to shake, signaling his irritation. But, then again, she seemed to be genuinely interested in the extraction process. She even offered to help him without a second thought, despite what he did to her the previous week.

"Perhaps she is just kind," he said aloud, now pressing his thumb to his bottom lip. Naraku remembered the tone of her voice when she yelled at him after regaining consciousness. It was such a strong voice, one that showed no fear. He knew better than to think she had forgotten about the storage room incident, let alone forgive him.

 _'That smile she had when she called me amazing….she hungers for some form of revenge. She's trying to play me.'_ Naraku closed his eyes, trying to see her image in his head. The one with the smile from earlier. Was it truly malicious or were his tired eyes playing him instead?

"She just wanted to help." He stated, his own voice shocking him, as if it spoke without his command. Naraku kept his eyes closed. It felt too nice to close them to open them again. He leaned forward and rested his forehead on her notes, exhaling slowly and realizing the sickening feeling was leaving his body.

 _'She's too smart to want to help someone like me. She doesn't like me. She doesn't care about me. She doesn't care about my work. She wants revenge.'_ He reminded himself. His mind went blank. He didn't remember anything else, nor did new thoughts surface his mind.

Naraku's eyes snapped open when he recognized the beeping of his watch, alerting him to tend to his samples. He slowly pushed himself up from the table after tapping the button on his watch, looking down at Jade's notes. Apparently, they served as a fantastic pillow, because he drooled on them. Naraku looked around the room, making sure no one had walked in at five in the morning for some obscure reason and then used his sleeve to gently wipe his saliva from her notes. Unfortunately, it left a smear. He lowered his arm and exhaled dramatically.

"Back to work." He announced, walking around the table towards the shaker.

When he finished decanting his samples, he placed them on the table and sighed with relief. He could go home and sleep now. The next fraction could wait. Naraku grabbed his keys and notes, deciding to leave his mess on the table. He grabbed the door handle, but then remembered his bottles in the oven. They still needed to be taken care of and they had quite a few hours to go. They had to be emptied and then dried in the oven. Naraku's thoughts shifted to Jade again and he grimaced while shaking his head.

 _'She needs to go. But first,'_ Naraku walked towards her experiment, grabbing a piece of paper and uncapping his pen. He wrote a note, asking her to empty the bottles and place them back into the oven, and then placed it over the spot of her notes where he drooled. If she wanted to help so badly, then maybe she could finish that task. He then started asking himself, "What if she refused?" She could easily set him back a day. He shook his head, marching out of the lab. A problem for another day.


	6. Love the Game Hate the Player

**Love the Game; Hate the Player**

Jade slowed her approach to the lab door, glancing at the bottom to see if any light was spilling from the inside. She sighed when she saw darkness. Jade unlocked the door and slowly opened it, expecting his hand to reach from behind the door and grab hers like he had done when she walked in a month prior. Jade sighed once more. No hand grabbing hers, no deep chuckle, and no smooth-talking. Jade pursed her lips and flipped the switch, the lights of the lab stalling for a moment before suddenly flashing on. She rolled her eyes when she saw the used beakers and flasks sitting on the table. She hadn't seen Naraku for two weeks, but she had been cleaning up the messes he left. Apparently, he worked in the lab in the evening hours now. He had left her only one note asking her to do a favor two weeks prior, but since then, he just left his messes on the table with no instructions. Jade cleaned everything, dried them, and placed them back into the correct cabinets. She did this every day before starting any of her experiments.

After finishing the clean-up and drying of the equipment Naraku had used the previous night, Jade pulled her phone from her pocket and quickly typed up an email to send to Bruce. She had finished the last experiment on the list of Chemistry 1 Lab experiments. She also answered all of the questions the reports for each experiment, so she had nothing more to do and it was only the middle of June. Jade placed the folder of all her written work on the table and looked around the empty lab.

"I guess I can find more to clean," she said with an exhale, walking to the storage room to find the broom. She hadn't swept the floor for a few weeks, so she figured that needed to be done. Jade regretted not bringing her laptop, something she began doing when she realized that Naraku had swapped his hours. Usually, he would tinker with things around the lab, or torment her, or simply discuss something with her, but without him, the lab was so silent that it almost hurt her ears. If she wasn't boiling a solution or playing music, she felt like she was going to go insane. Jade gritted her teeth, pressing the broom bristles to the floor harder so they would make a louder scratching sound.

After sweeping the dirt into a dustpan and throwing it in the trash, Jade placed the broom back into the closet and decided to wipe down the counters. She snatched the rag from the sink and began scrubbing the counters down. They weren't dirty; just dusty. When she heard the door jiggling, her heart skipped a beat and she quickly looked over, expecting to see a tall man with long, wavy black hair, but she was met with the much shorter Bruce with much shorter hair.

"Alright, I received your email. Finished all of them, hm?" Bruce asked, leaving the door open as he walked towards the table. Jade tossed the rag into the sink and walked to the table to speak with him.

"Yeah, everything I've done is in there." Jade said, nodding to the folder. Bruce scooped it up, flipping it open and looking through it briefly.

"I will look these over and critique them. It will definitely take me a few days."

"Okay. What should I do now?"

"No idea. I don't have any immediate projects that need to be prepped, or at least, not ones on your level. Oh, but tomorrow I will have you take a test. It's part of the procedure to becoming the TA. You'll watch some videos, take a test based off the videos, then sign some papers saying that you won't help students cheat or be unhelpful, blah, blah, blah."

"Sounds fun," Jade said sarcastically. Bruce shrugged as he nodded.

"But, you'll like this part; you get extra pay for being a TA. When classes start, your hours in here will drop from twenty-five a week to twenty a week. But, the TA will bring you back up to twenty-three, so you'll only be losing two hours of pay."

"Oh, alright. That actually makes me feel better." Jade chirped.

"I figured you would like that. Until then, just come in here for your regular hours and clean or mess around with an experiment you find online. I'll email you some links for funding for projects. A lot of places will offer you a small project to complete and some funding for that project. We can find something for you to do."

"Well, Naraku said,"

"Right. I meant to ask you what you did with his body," Bruce interrupted with a chuckle. Jade tilted her head slightly, frowning as she pointed at herself questioningly.

"What?"

"I haven't seen the bastard for two weeks. The last I heard from him was two weeks ago when he emailed me to send him the paperwork for an office in the basement so he could work uninterrupted." Bruce told her.

"And you think I," Jade trailed off, a smile twisting its way onto her face, but it wasn't a happy one.

"How did you do it? Either he's avoiding you or you killed him and if it's the latter, can you tell me where I can pay my respects?" Bruce asked, quoting the air with his fingers on the last portion of his question.

"But I….I didn't do anything! The last time I saw him in here was two weeks ago. I've been cleaning up his messes, though. He's definitely alive." Jade insisted, feeling the blood drain from her face.

"Whatever you did, it spooked him. He wants an office where he can read and do work by himself with no one to bother him."

"Oh," Jade looked down at the table, tapping the glossed surface with her finger.

"Jade, don't tell me you feel bad," Bruce's voice sounded strained and bewildered at the same time.

"No, well, yeah, a little. He's just as much a student of this lab as I am. He was here first. I didn't mean to make him uncomfortable. I was just….I don't know." Jade explained, waving her hands and finally shrugging.

"What did you do? Did you hug him or come on to him?"

"No! I-wait, does that work? Whatever! All I did was try to help him with the extractions!" Jade stated, her voice raising with disbelief. Naraku was avoiding her? It should have been the other way around!

"You helped him with the extractions and now he wants to avoid you," Bruce repeated slowly, his eyes showing the terrified shock of his inner thoughts. Jade looked down at her hands once again, falling silent. It sounded completely outrageous when her professor said it that way, but it was the truth! Jade locked her interlocked her fingers, massaging them together nervously.

"I don't remember saying or doing anything else. He said he still wanted me to be his lab assistant, but he didn't want my help." Jade finally said after a moment of silence. Bruce's shoulders sagged as he placed her folder down on the table. He let out an exaggerated exhale, both hands rubbing his lightly-bearded face.

"If he wants you so badly, he should ask nicely. You're free to do whatever you want. I have another grad student. It's pretty much official, minus a few signed papers. If you end up wanting to work with him, then go for it. If you want to work with Naraku, fine. If you want to find your own project, then that's fine, too. I'm not going to force you to do anything."

"What kind of work does the new grad student do?" Jade questioned, looking up at her professor.

"He's biology-based. Not too different from Naraku's aim. Actually, he'll be visiting on Tuesday, if you care to meet him." Bruce said with a broad smile.

"Really? What time?" Jade asked curiously, wondering what this grad student was like.

"Noon. I don't feel like talking to anyone before noon anymore. I'm glad Naraku is working in the evenings now. At least the tour I give to this student will be Naraku-free." Bruce chuckled.

"It's just not the same without him, though. You can't get the full experience of this lab without experiencing Naraku." Jade insisted sarcastically. Bruce pointed at her while nodding.

"Don't let this get to you. Naraku is just being a bully. I'll give him a separate office and he can deal with his issues on his own.

"Alright,"

You know, now that I think about it, maybe he's not avoiding you," Bruce said to her, his eyes widening as a thought hit him.

"No?" Jade questioned curiously.

"No. I told him that the new grad student was visiting soon when he asked me for his own office. I didn't tell him which day in hopes of him randomly showing up and being heavily disappointed and mad. So, he probably figured he'd avoid it all together."

"I see." Jade replied with a slow nod. Bruce shook his head while scooping up Jade's folder once more.

"The man is incredible in many ways. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. Feel free to do whatever." Bruce said as he left the room, closing the door behind him and allowing the lab to fall silent once more. Jade looked over at the desk Naraku usually sat at to do his reading, sighing heavily.

 _'Why am I feeling bad? I didn't do anything!'_ Jade rolled her eyes while shaking her head. She walked over to the desk and pulled out a piece of paper, folding it a few times before grabbing a pen and sitting down in the chair to think about what to write. At this point, she figured he was fickle, so she had to be thoughtful about what she wrote to him.

 _'I'm willing to discuss being your lab assistant….no, that's too nice, probably.'_ Jade thought, shaking the pen back and forth beside her head, her elbow anchored to the desk for the ultimate pivoting movement.

"Hey asshole, are you too fuckin' butt-hurt to talk to me about being your stupid lab slave?" Jade asked aloud, a part of her hoping he was standing on the other side of the door listening to her. Jade breathed heavily, leaning back in the chair. She wasn't even sure if she wanted to be his lab assistant, but she was willing to hear him out. Jade assumed he would offer her something in return, but she knew better than to think he wouldn't somehow rip the rug out from underneath her. Suddenly, she knew what to write to him.

' _I shouldn't do this,'_ Jade thought as a wicked smirk pulled onto her face, but the pen hit the paper and the words poured out before she could talk herself out of it.

' _ **I'm sorry I scared you, Naraku. I hope you can overcome your fear and return to the lab. It's quiet without you.'**_

Jade stared at the note for a few moments, a tiny seed of regret sprouting in her chest, but she jumped up from the chair and dropped the pen on the desk, repeating the word, "Nope," to herself as she grabbed her keys to take a walk around campus and enjoy her afternoon off. The note spoke true, but it was definitely twisted, and Jade was prepared for whatever backlash she received for it. Jade froze when her hand touched the doorknob, another idea striking her.

 _'When he reads that note, he'll almost definitely come in to prove me wrong the next day. But, Bruce doesn't seem to want him and this new grad student to interact and Naraku doesn't seem to want to meet this new grad student, either.'_ Jade realized, backing away from the door for a moment. Her green eyes were locked on the note she left on Naraku's desk. She walked over and picked the paper up, placing it in her pocket.

"Tuesday, then. If he wants to make me feel like shit and embarrass me, two can play that game." Jade said bitterly as she walked back to the door to leave and enjoy her free afternoon.

000000

"Did you try working the shaft?" Jade asked sarcastically after placing her bottle of unopened beer on her desk and readjusting the microphone to her mouth.

"Ha-ha, hilarious," Ginta replied with equal sarcasm.

"I don't mean to sound like one of those people, but turning it off and then turning it back on actually works," Jade said, her eyes shifting to her other monitor where her chatroom exploded with comments, possible solutions, and various other conversations happening between her viewers. They could hear the entire conversation between her and Ginta, so it was amusing to read some of their responses.

"Alright, alright. Be back in a minute." Ginta relented with a sigh, his name disappearing from Jade's Skype list. Jade turned back to her camera and shook her head slightly.

"So, who wants to bet I can't drink this entire bottle of beer in fifteen seconds?" Jade asked, holding the bottle in front of the camera to show it was still unopened. She saw countless replies of, "Me" explode, along with some time negotiations. Some people even asked how much she wanted. Jade waited for a moment before clearing her throat.

"Alright, ten seconds, then. I'll put the timer up." Jade stated, clicking her countdown back onto the screen. She set it to ten seconds and then twisted off the bottle cap, tapping the bottle on her desk a few times to release some excess carbon dioxide. She maximized her camera screen so everyone could see her from the shoulders up, rolled back in her chair to give her audience a better view, and placed the bottle to her lips with her fingers on her other hand resting on the start button. She clicked and tilted her head back, chugging the bitter liquid in a smooth, rhythmic fashion. Each second was a gulp, but as she neared the end of the bottle, she sped up, tilting her head back more. When she finished, she held the empty bottle up with two seconds to spare and watched as the donations began rolling in like an avalanche. Her chatroom was filled with calls of her name and howls.

"THANK….YOOOOOU….GUYSSSSSSS!" she belched out loudly and monstrously. Another flood of donations and another round of howling followed suit and she giggled.

"That was attractive!" Kagome stated sarcastically, leaning her head in the doorway of Jade's room. Jade belched again with a crooked grin. Kagome rolled her eyes, but was still smiling as she walked away.

"Wow, Jade, what the hell?" Sango's voice called from her bedroom. Jade's giggles evolved into laughter.

"Sorry!" Jade called back, looking into her camera and snickering while mouthing the words, "No, I'm not," to her viewers. Jade saw Ginta calling, so she answered his call and waited to hear if his equipment was finally synching up or not.

"You were right. Working the shaft does work." Ginta stated, fidgeting with his headset.

"Mm, is that why you took so long to call back?" Jade asked, suppressing a burp. She was actually surprised with how fast he logged back on, but she couldn't resist an easy joke.

"Duh. Alright, so Hakkaku said he's on right now and that's he checking his camera. I still haven't heard from Koga."

"Huh. Why am I not surprised?" Jade questioned while dramatically waving her hand.

"Because you're psychic." Ginta replied with a heavy sigh. Jade belted out another loud belch and received a few more donations for it. They even wrote notes to send with the money saying, "Nice one." Ginta laughed about it, too, and sent her a few dollars.

"I don't know if Alpha will be here tonight, guys. He's playing the, "I don't remember that I own a phone," game without us. We'll keep you updated." Jade explained, seeing a few people comment about where Koga/Alpha was at the moment. To be honest, she was irritated with him. Lately, he had been ditching her, Ginta, and Hakkaku both at work and for hang-outs. She would understand if he had legitimate reasons to do so.

"I mean, surely he didn't forget," Ginta stated skeptically after a few moments of silence.

"I would hope not. This was his idea." Jade responded, leaning forward when she saw another name appear on her Skype list. It was Hakkaku, so she answered him and placed everyone on a conference call.

"Sorry about that, guys. The girlfriend needed some help." Hakkaku chirped happily.

"You can suck your own dick? Well that's nice of you," Ginta shot.

"Ooh, get some," Jade giggled, watching the chatroom explode with more howls and calls to Hakkaku.

"It is nice of me since, you know, I have a girlfriend." Hakkaku replied haughtily.

"That I introduced you to, thanks." Ginta responded with equal arrogance.

"Save the shit talk for the game, guys." Jade interjected, wiping away some of the condensation of her now-empty beer bottle.

"Oh, we have plenty of that! We have plenty!" Hakkaku reassured her with a laugh.

"Why don't you go help your girlfriend again? It was quieter on here when you did that. And smarter." Ginta whined. Jade bit her lips shut as she read some of the comments in the chatroom. The viewers seemed to enjoy the bickering, so she decided not to comment on it anymore.

"What are we playing again?" Hakkaku asked.

"Skate 3." Jade and Ginta said. They heard scratching noises and assumed Hakkaku was digging around for something. Jade saw her phone screen light up and leaned over to see who messaged her. She rolled her eyes, realizing it was Koga, and unlocked her phone to read the message.

"We're just going to have to start without him. We have over three-thousand people waiting right now." Ginta announced with a sigh.

"Oh, lookie, lookie, someone's trying to get some nookie," Jade sang, holding her phone in front of the camera briefly.

"Of course he messaged you." Hakkaku grumbled.

"Well yeah, because he knows you and I will tear him apart." Ginta retorted.

"And I won't?" Jade asked skeptically.

"Not right now you won't. You like to wait." Ginta answered candidly.

"Yeah, she likes to wait when your shitty feelings about yourself surface in your mind," Hakkaku added on.

"Yeaaaaaaah! You're just sitting alone in your room, maybe crying or not crying about how you hate the way you handled a situation from like, five years ago or something, and then all of a sudden, you get a text from Jade saying, "Remember that one time you ditched me for a date? I do." And then the shitty feelings intensify." Ginta explained with a nervous laugh.

"Do I do that?" Jade asked, looking into her camera with a confused look.

"Yeah, yeah you do. Pretty sure it's on purpose." Ginta said accusingly.

"You know exactly that you're doing, you emotion-whore!" Hakkaku spat loudly. Jade began laughing, nodding slightly.

"I realize it sometimes, but I don't know when you guys are sitting alone in your rooms, sobbing over how much you suck at life." Jade shot back evenly.

"Sucky-Sucky five dollar! Me suck your emotions long time!" Ginta stated loudly with a fake accent.

"Me remind you of every-ting you did!" Hakkaku joined in.

"Everything?"

"Every-ting."

"Anyway. Koga's going on a date, so we'll have to hunt without him." Jade announced professionally into the camera. The donations were pouring in and she figured it was because of Ginta and Hakkaku. The two were best friends and had been for years, but no one would guess that from the way they spoke to each other. Their viewers ate their banter and arguments up like a dog with a piece of hamburger dropped on the floor.

"Did you reply to him?" Ginta asked curiously.

"No. I'm going to wait for him to start sobbing alone in his room about how much he sucks at life." Jade answered with fake hostility.

"Alright! He's here! Bye!" Kagome's voice called out. Jade immediately looked up from her screen, her brain putting two and two together. When she started streaming, Kagome mentioned going out with "someone."

"I'll be right back, guys." Jade said quickly, pulling her headset off and marching out of her room. She spotted Sango in the living room, looking out the sliding glass doors to watch Kagome take off. Jade strode to the doors and watched as the neon blue lights of Koga's car pulled away.

"What's wrong?" Sango asked Jade, noticing the angered look on her friend's face.

"I'm so confused. And pissed."

"Why? What happ-"

"Why is Kagome going on a date with Koga? Doesn't she have a boyfriend?"

"A boyfriend? Who? It's not a date."

"Inu-the-fuck-ever-his-name-is! I don't know! I thought they were a thing!" Jade stated with frustration.

"Well, they kind of are. It's kind of weird right now. Why are you upset? Also, don't let Kagome hear you call him that,"

"Because Koga wanted to do a stream tonight with us and now….this. Also, Kagome isn't here."

"I know, I'm just saying she'll yell at you. A lot. She's going to tell Koga she's not interested, but that she wants to be friends. So, be prepared for him to be upset." Sango told her. Jade looked off to the side, fighting away the urge to make a biting comment.

 _'I'm angry with Koga and no one else. I'll deal with him later.'_ Jade reminded herself.

"Sooooo….are you still going to stream?" Sango asked curiously.

"Yeah," Jade answered with a nod.

"Can I….Can I watch?"

"Yeah, of course!" Jade replied with a smile and immediately forgetting her anger.

Sango was sitting on Jade's bed, which was fully out of view of the camera. She was holding Jade's laptop in her lap, but she moved it onto the bed after doubling over from a laughing fit, both hands covering her mouth so no one watching could hear her snort. She snorted earlier and Jade's microphone was so sensitive that it picked up on the noise, so Sango, watching the chatroom while watching the three community players, got to see everyone's reaction to her snort. People were mostly funny about it and any rude comments were dealt with immediately by the chatroom moderators.

"This is just silly now," Jade said with a laugh, watching as Hakkaku's skater character ran off the side of the building, ditching his skateboard and tucking in his arms, legs, and head for a cannonball maneuver. Originally, they were trying to pull off sick tricks, but that became too boring too quickly. Now, they were leaping off stages and trying to build points based on their injuries. The game even allowed them to rate the "trick" by pushing a button.

"Aw yeah! First place!" Hakkaku celebrated after mashing all the buttons on his controller to gain the high score.

"For now," Ginta pointed out, the game's camera zooming in on his character.

"Oh no, I can't anymore," Sango breathed out, still laughing profusely. She wiped tears from her eyes. Ginta's character leapt off the building and Sango hoped he wouldn't do the "thing" again.

"Hnnnnnnnnnnnnngh! Yeah, buddy! Yeah, yeah! Ooooooooh, hnnnnnng! Damn it, nooooooo!" Ginta shouted. Jade had been laughing, but was trying not to lose her composure too much. It was hard enough listening to Sango beg some higher power to not let Ginta make those noises again.

"Ginta, why does it sound like you're having some violent orgasm every time it's your turn?" Hakkaku asked skeptically, but he was laughing, too.

"I just, I really get into it, guys," Ginta explained bashfully. Jade could almost see his cheeks reddening in her mind.

"Uh, yeah, uh, guys, this is my first, uh, sex-sexual experience, and uh, I'm really terrified," Hakkaku stated, mimicking Ginta's voice perfectly.

"I caaaaaaaan't! I can't!" Sango called out pathetically. Jade looked back at her while giggling. Sango's face was red and wet with tears and she was curled up on her bed in the fetal position as her body shook with laughter.

"My roommate is losing her mind right now," Jade announced with a grin.

"I can kind of hear her over your microphone," Hakkaku chuckled.

"Alright, guys. Time to blow your minds. Time to change everything." Jade announced with a smug smile, pushing the control stick up and forcing her character to charge off the top of the building. Instead of the cannonball formation Ginta and Hakkaku's characters used, Jade's character took a torpedo approach to the fall, even going as far as spinning.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ginta shrieked.

"That was sick! That was sick!" Hakkaku stated as he up-voted her trick.

"Oh, I'm not done! I'm not done! Keep wiggling! Keep wiggling!" Jade said excitedly as her broken character's body landed on his shoulders and arms, twitching and jumping as her score skyrocketed.

"What? Whaaaaat? No! That's bullshit! That's total bullshit! Slut! Slut!" Hakkaku shouted with disbelief as Jade's score passed his quickly. Ginta began laughing, unable to form words for what he was seeing at the moment. Her character looked like it was possessed by a demon.

"Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, yeah!" Jade chanted as her character kept twitching and bouncing, finally losing balance and falling over.

"I can't breathe," Sango gasped, pounding her fist into Jade's mattress in hopes that her lungs would allow her to inhale soon.

"Yeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuh," Jade giggled, high-fiving her camera lightly.

"Get that cheating shit out of here! Nooooooo," Hakkaku cried dramatically.

"I told you I was going to change everything." Jade reminded him.

"No, seriously, how'd you do that?" Ginta asked after regaining his composure.

"I don't know, dude! I just mashed buttons and shit happened!" Jade insisted honestly. Her character just happened to land in a position where she was allowed to mash. Any other time, he would have landed flat and the score window would have been closed immediately.

After a few more rounds of who could fail the most at Skate 3, Jade and Ginta switched to Killer Instinct while Hakkaku bid them good night. Jade and Ginta practiced with their shared character, Sabrewulf, for a few hours before calling it a night, thanking their viewers for their time, donations, and commentary. Jade shut down her computers and monitors, and draped a small towel over her camera. She walked over to her bed where Sango fell asleep and tapped her friend on the arm.

"Bed time," Jade chirped, closing her laptop and turning around to place it back on her desk.

"Mm, on one condition," Sango said back groggily. Jade snorted and shrugged.

"Sure. What?"

"Go to the gym with me tomorrow."

"Aw, okay," Jade relented. Sango slowly sat up and stood from the bed, patting Jade on the shoulder lightly before walking out of her room.

"Good night. I won't be too rough on you tomorrow." Sango called back.

"The last time you said that, I couldn't sit for three days," Jade said in a low voice, knowing Sango couldn't hear her.

000000

"One….two….three….four," Naraku counted off under his breath as he lifted the heavier bar of weights. He wanted better toned arms, so he increased his weight on curls, which he was currently conquering. Now that he worked in the lab in the evening, he could go to the gym in the mornings, which gave him more time and energy to workout. He finished the set of curls and bent over to place the weight bar on the floor at his feet.

"There we go," he whispered, now feeling the burn in his muscles. Naraku imitated the curl movement a few more times with his arms, clenching and unclenching his hands. He counted down the last few seconds of his break before bending over and grabbing the bar underhanded once more, curling it slowly towards his chest. His reddish-brown eyes stared out the tall, wide windows of the gym that overlooked the track. A few men were practicing short sprints, a woman was jogging, and two other women were standing off to the side, one with pads strapped to her arms while the other punched and kicked at the pads. Naraku found himself staring at them the longest. It wasn't often people practiced fighting or boxing outside. The attacking woman would stop and talk while repeating her movements slowly, seemingly instructing the defending woman on how to throw a punch or kick effectively. Naraku smirked. The instructing woman had a hell of a body. Even from the distance and height he was at, he could see her biceps and calves bulging with each flex of her movements. He was almost jealous. The defending woman was wearing baggy sweatpants and a loose T-shirt and the padding she wore on her arms covered them from any judgments from Naraku. When the defending woman turned to face her opponent in a different direction, Naraku almost dropped the weight bar on his feet.

 _'Jade?'_ he questioned, almost telling himself it wasn't her and to turn around. He had spent the last two weeks thinking nothing of her and trying to push her from his memory. But at this moment, his mind betrayed him. He watched as Jade held the pads up and allowed the other woman to unleash a barrage of quick punches and then end them with a half-powered kick.

"Is there anywhere I can go without her being there?" Naraku asked himself, quickly looking around to make sure no one heard him. He placed his bar on the floor and allowed his arms another rest since he just mindlessly curled several sets while staring at the woman he had been trying to erase from his life. This wasn't the first time he had seen her in public, either. He saw her at the grocery store with another young woman, he saw her at a stoplight, sitting behind him while she danced in her car, and he saw her at the little artwork shop with the man who tried to spot for him at the gym once. And now she was at the gym he used! Naraku shook his head, picking up his bar for the third and final set, exhaling as he brought the bar towards his chest.

Naraku walked into the lab after showering, napping, and eating dinner. He figured he would read a few papers and prepare the analyses of the extraction process he performed to be mailed to Bruce's clients. He had taken the data he received from the spectrophotometer and placed them onto line graphs to help demonstrate the levels of phosphorus for each type of phosphorus he extracted. He wished he knew the location the samples came from. He would have loved to actually analyze and give some sort of conclusion to the work he performed, but alas, it didn't work that way.

"Hm?" Naraku spotted a note on his desk after gathering the papers he printed out the previous night and stashed in his desk. He grabbed it between his index and middle fingers, flipping the words towards himself and instantly recognizing the handwriting.

' _ **I'm sorry I scared you, Naraku. I hope you can overcome your fear and return to the lab. It's quiet without you. Maybe we can discuss me being your lab assistant. I'll come in at noon tomorrow if you feel like it. – With much love, Jade'**_

"You bitch." Naraku murmured while gritting his teeth. But, almost as soon as the anger came, so did his smile and his chuckle. It had been a long time since someone got a rise out of him so often. He wanted to shake her hand almost as much as he wanted to strangle her. Naraku threw the note in the trashcan next to his desk and sighed heavily.

"Fine." He breathed. If she wanted to see him so badly, then he would give her what she wanted. He began organizing the papers he held into order before slipping them into a folder to be mailed off the next day. __

000000

Naraku fluffed his long black hair as he walked down the hallway of the Science Building. It was a few minutes after noon, so he expected Jade to be waiting for him in the lab or be a few minutes behind him. He still had his doubts about speaking to Jade, but maybe if he confronted her, the sickening feeling in his stomach would go away. He checked the cuffs of his shirt, brushing away a few wrinkles in his sleeve and speeding up his pace towards the door. His fingers fished around his pocket for his keys, but he saw the door was slightly ajar.

 _'She must be expecting me.'_ Naraku thought, reaching out to push the door open. His eyes locked on Bruce, who was standing across the table from another man. Naraku recognized the white hair and his eyes widened as his heart skipped so many beats he was sure it stopped beating entirely.

"Of course you showed up today," Bruce remarked with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. Naraku's reddish-brown eyes had locked with the other man's golden ones.

"How quaint of you to show up and welcome me into your lab, Naraku. For a moment, I thought you didn't like me," The man's voice was as calm and smooth as Naraku remembered when he last heard it. Naraku closed his eyes, inhaling through his nose.

"Where is Jade?" Naraku asked slowly.

"She came in early and took the rest of the day off. You would know that if you talked to her more often." Bruce replied with annoyance as he crossed his arms.

"Took the rest of the day….off," Naraku repeated in a quiet voice. His entire body had gone numb and his mind was in a frenzy. He couldn't even form another sentence at the moment. Naraku gritted his teeth when he finally realized that Jade set him up.

"What's your problem?" Bruce asked skeptically, noticing that Naraku seemed to have shut down. He was just standing in the room with his eyes closed and his shoulders slumped.

"Nothing pleases me more that you're here, Sesshomaru. However, I have something more important than you to tend to," Naraku stated after a few moments of silence. He backed out of the room and turned around to walk back to his car. His pace was hurried, forceful, and angry.

' _Jade, you will swing for this!'_ Naraku thought, throwing the doors open and heading towards his car. He opened the driver's door and sat down, slamming the door shut and opening his mouth to let out a scream, but it never came out. Instead, he began laughing.


	7. Volatile Solutions

**Volatile Solutions**

Within seconds of entering the lab, Naraku grabbed a stool and carried it over to the side of the table where Jade was sitting and typing away on her laptop. He placed the stool right beside her and sat down on it, centimeters from touching her. His back faced the table so he could lean back and watch every expression on her face. Naraku pulled a little plastic bag filled with baby carrots out of his shirt pocket, crossed one leg over the other, and placed the bag on his crotch. He singled out a carrot and snatched it between his thumb and index finger. Next, he leaned forward until he was right next to Jade's ear and loudly bit a chunk of carrot off between his teeth.

"Good afternoon, Naraku." Jade chimed calmly, turning to look at him with a gentle smile as he leaned away from her. Naraku chewed the piece of carrot, his eyes locked with hers.

"Good afternoon. Carrot?" Naraku asked after swallowing the mashed carrot in his mouth. Jade glanced down at the bag of carrots sitting on his crotch, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly. Her green eyes met his.

"Sure. Thanks." Jade chirped, reaching into the bag without breaking eye contact with him. One corner of his mouth turned up, but Jade kept her hand steady as she grabbed a carrot and pulled it out, but she didn't take a bite.

"I received your note," Naraku began, propping his elbow up on the table, staring at the half-eaten carrot pinned between his fingers. Jade nodded slowly while exhaling.

"I figured." She answered candidly. Naraku plopped the other half of the carrot into his mouth and crunched down on it, leaning his head on his hand as he stared at her vacantly.

"I assume you met the new graduate student?" Naraku asked her, exhaling quietly. He saw her perk up immediately, a wide smile stretching from her lips.

"I did. He's pretty, isn't he? I think he's even prettier than you." Jade stated. Naraku pulled another carrot from the bag and clamped it between his teeth.

"He's certainly prettier than you." Naraku retorted, slicing another chunk of carrot into his mouth with his teeth.

"Oh yeah, by miles. Makes me sweat just thinking about him," Jade chirped, finally sticking the carrot into her mouth and sucking on it as suggestively as she could. Naraku chuckled, finishing his second carrot and looking away while Jade enjoyed her carrot. He turned back to her when he heard her typing, so he leaned forward again, staring at her unblinkingly. Jade tried to fight away a smile, but the harder she fought, the more she wanted to laugh.

"I hope I'm not annoying you." Naraku said in a low voice. It sent shivers down Jade's spine.

"You're not." Jade assured him, shaking her head and ignoring the fight-or-flight warnings her body was giving her.

"Good." He replied, resting his cheek against his fist, his eyes never leaving her face. Jade snickered as she began typing a response email to Bruce. She felt Naraku's hand brush hers as he struck random keys to screw up her message. She erased the mistakes, but he just typed more. When she placed her hands in her lap, he did the same with his free hand. When Jade held her hands over the keyboard teasingly, he did the same with his hand hovering between hers.

"I'm guessing you finished the extractions?" Jade asked Naraku as a defeated breath left her lungs. She decided to give up on typing the email on her laptop.

"Mmmmhmmm." He hummed, leaning even closer to her face.

"How did it go? Anything interesting?"

"A portion of the samples in the middle section had pretty high phosphorus levels, but I can't say much more because I don't know where they were taken from nor do I have a history of the area."

"Ah, so those levels could be normal for that area?"

"Precisely." Naraku answered, his lips centimeters from her ear. His breath tickled her ear and she was half-tempted to shove her shoulder into his jaw.

 _'This is pretty tame punishment compared to what I was expecting.'_ She thought with amusement.

"If I am annoying you, do let me know." Naraku said with false concern.

"Luckily for me, you have good hygiene. And you're not half-bad to look at, so I'm good." Jade retorted. Naraku leaned away from her and frowned. He plucked another carrot from the bag and bit into it. Jade glanced at him briefly before placing her hands back on her keyboard to type. Two sentences in, Naraku's fingers were lightly tapping keys once more. Jade giggled as she pulled her hands back. Naraku moved his finger across the touchpad and clicked 'send.'

"Who is receiving this?" Naraku asked with a smirk.

"Bruce." Jade replied.

"Damn. I was hoping it was someone important."

"Maybe next time." Jade cooed with a pout, patting his arm gently. Naraku pulled his arm away from her quickly, but his smirk never left his face. Jade stood up and walked to the sink, grabbing a cup and filling it with water. She flinched when an arm snaked out from behind her, snatching the cup from her hand and pulling it away. Jade looked up, watching Naraku drink the water above her head.

"Alright, what's your gimmick?" Jade asked him. Naraku finished the drink and looked down at her, placing the cup in the sink.

"I've no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah, you do."

"I read your note. You said you missed me, so I promise to never leave you alone again." Naraku explained. Jade turned around, but Naraku was standing so close to her that she couldn't walk away. Jade tried to squeeze out to the side, but Naraku placed his hands down on the sink on either side of her. He still wasn't touching her, but he was close enough. Naraku tilted his head to the side, his eyes looking down her body and then trailing back up until his eyes met hers.

"I didn't say I missed you." Jade pointed out, holding her finger up.

"You said it was quiet without me. And you so kindly apologized to me for any discomfort you caused me. That means you missed me."

"I apologized for scaring you." Jade corrected, realizing he was dancing around certain words of the note. Naraku leaned down, his smirk disappearing and his face growing serious.

"You don't scare me." He stated evenly, but Jade could taste the anger simmering just beneath his calm exterior.

 _'I must have struck several nerves with that little note.'_ Jade thought humorously. She matched his movement and leaned forward slowly, too.

"You fooled me." Jade said before making a quick biting motion towards his face. Naraku flinched and backed away from her quickly. His face had gone pale and his eyes had widened.

"You have some nerve,"

"Gotcha, bitch!" Jade laughed, pressing a hand to her stomach. Her nerves about this situation were getting the better of her, but she couldn't resist teasing him.

"You may have," Naraku began, but he stopped when Jade held up a finger.

"What I wouldn't give to have seen your face when you walked in yesterday," Jade told him. Naraku prowled towards her slowly, a small smirk pulled onto his face, but his eyes were screaming "murder." He brushed a loose strand of brown hair away from Jade's face and leaned so close she could feel his breath caress her ear.

"It was wise of you to leave before I arrived. I would have strangled you with a smile on my face." He growled softly. Jade closed her eyes, a cold wave washing over her body.

 _'What have I done?'_ Jade felt a tremble through her body, slowly looking up at him as she opened her eyes. Naraku looked back down at her quietly, expectantly. She wondered if her next sentence would be her last. But, the harder she fought it away, the more it wanted to spill from her mouth! It was as if his presence pulled everything terrible about her personality to the surface like a sadistic magnet!

"I would have laughed all the way until my last breath." Jade retorted delicately. She felt his hand grasp some of her hair, running his fingers through the brown strands gently before smirking.

"I didn't say I would kill you, my dear. That would end the fun too soon." Naraku said before walking away from her.

' _What has this man done to me?'_ Jade swallowed her heart back into her chest, watching as he sat down at his desk and pulled a paper from one of the drawers. He grabbed a pen and began scribbling away on the paper. Jade walked back to her laptop and began typing another email, cautiously glancing at Naraku after every few words. Jade exhaled slowly when she noticed he was absorbed into the paper he was drawing on. Jade was glad she held off on the email to the local arcade in the mall. Otherwise, Naraku would have ruined it. Koga had called the other game places about holding a small tournament, but they all told him to ask the mall arcade. Once Jade heard that bit, she insisted she would take care of it at that point.

Naraku continued scribbling away at the paper, darkening the image he had created. He glanced up every so often to look at Jade and attempt to read her mood. She seemed to be completely obsessed with whatever she was working on. She was writing things down on a paper, scratching out previously written words, typing into the calculator on her phone, and lightly chewing on the end of the pen she held while staring at her screen. Naraku sighed quietly, finishing up some shading on his drawing before placing the pen down and holding the paper up to see it from a different angle. He stood up from the desk and checked his watch before walking over to the stool beside Jade, holding the paper against his chest.

"I made this for you," he chirped, handing the paper to Jade. She pinched the paper between her thumb and index finger, sliding it from his fingers slowly while looking at him with an arched eyebrow. Jade flipped the paper and observed the drawing, a controlled breath pouring from her nose while shaking her head. Naraku glanced down at the paper she was previously writing on. It was mostly numbers with dollar signs. A few days of the week were listed.

 _'Bills, perhaps?'_ he wondered.

"It's really cute, Naraku." Jade said after a moment of silence. Naraku smirked when she looked up at him. He knew she was being sarcastic. It was a cartoon drawing of him burying her alive. Unless she was into that kind of thing, which he doubted. Jade placed the drawing down and exhaled loudly once more.

"Hungry?" Naraku asked, pulling his keys from his pocket and jingling them at her. Jade frowned at him and the keys, holding her hand out skeptically.

"Why would I go anywhere with you when you keep telling me that you want to kill me?" she asked him with irritation lacing her voice. Naraku sat down on the stool beside her, resting his hands on his lap.

"Not kill you; take your breath away. Now, do you want to eat or not?" Naraku insisted, jingling his keys erratically. Jade shook her head and stared at the table.

"I can just eat for free at home."

"I'll pay."

"Fine." Jade agreed with annoyance, standing up and closing her laptop. She slipped her phone into her pocket and walked around the table on the other side to avoid scooting past Naraku. Naraku followed her out of the lab, whistling a little tune as he caught up with her.

"If you don't want to,"

"You're not going to leave me alone, let's be honest," Jade interrupted him bitterly. A small laugh erupted from Naraku's throat, but he said nothing more to her for the moment.

Naraku backed out of his usual parking space and glanced at his grumpy passenger, who was staring out the window with her arms crossed. He had the urge to pat her head, but he fought it and kept his hands glued to his steering wheel.

"Any restaurant you prefer?" Naraku asked curiously, stifling a yawn.

"Nope." Jade answered shortly.

"Alright. Any restaurant you don't care for?"

"I don't want pizza."

"Heh, duly noted."

"I shouldn't have said that," Jade sighed hopelessly. He was probably going to take her directly to her other job or worse. She closed her eyes to prevent rolling them when he snickered at her. Jade inhaled through her nose deeply in attempt to fight away her uneasiness.

 _'At least his car smells nice.'_ She thought, going with the first positive thought her mind would spit out. In fact, she realized that Naraku always smelled nice. He was always clean, dressed sharply, and smelled pleasant. Some days, the scent of mint lingered around him, and other days, he smelled like a fresh basket of apples. His car, however, just smelled clean, almost like a new car. She just wished his personality was as pleasant as he smelled.

Naraku chose a restaurant and walked inside with Jade tagging along behind him. He tried slowing his pace to let her catch up, but she didn't seem to want to be around him, despite agreeing to have lunch with him. They were led to a table by a server. Naraku held a chair out for Jade and motioned for her to take a seat so he could push it in for her. She didn't look amused, but she sat in the chair and allowed Naraku to have his moment. He sat in the chair across from her and ordered a glass of water from the server, Jade doing the same before grabbing a menu and opening it.

"You seem upset about something," Naraku said, resting both hands on the table and tapping the glossed surface with his fingers.

"I don't know how to feel about accepting lunch from a man who wants to hurt me," Jade replied, her entire head hidden behind the menu she held up.

"If I wanted to physically harm you, I would have done it by now." Naraku replied tonelessly, as if they were discussing the weather.

"But you still wanted to."

"And you haven't felt the impulse to inflict pain on me?"

"You're mad that I tagged you back. I was mad that you knocked me unconscious."

"If you had held your breath longer,"

"I'm done with this conversation." Jade interrupted sternly, lowering the menu from her face. Her expression was calm, as Naraku expected. That was why she spent so much time behind the menu.

"What should we discuss instead?" Naraku questioned, moving his arm when the server placed the glass of water beside him. Jade nodded and thanked the server, straightening her posture when she ordered her food. Naraku mimicked her movements when he ordered his food, fighting away a chuckle when he saw her heated glare aimed his way.

"What do you do when you're not making other people miserable?" Jade asked Naraku after the server walked away with their food order. Naraku took a sip of water, his expression showing the innocence of a child.

"Are you actually interested or," Naraku trailed off, tapping the surface of the table with a single finger. Jade held her face with both hands, shaking her head slowly. Naraku licked his lips at the thought of her screaming at him in public, but as soon as that daydream surfaced, Jade lowered her hands and retained a stoic expression.

"All I want to do is have a nice conversation with you,"

"While insinuating that all I do is make others miserable," Naraku added arrogantly while pointing at her.

"Because I haven't seen you do anything else and that's why I was asking."

"Then I was correct to assume that you're not interested in my other hobbies."

"Alright, I'm done. I tried." Jade breathed, crossing her arms on the table and then gently face-planting onto them, hiding her face from the world. Naraku's mouth fell open. He tried reaching across the table to stop her, but he hesitated midway and quickly pulled his hand back to his lap.

"Jade, you're making us look ridiculous," Naraku pointed out, seeing another couple across the restaurant glance in their general direction.

"You actually feel something?" Jade asked sarcastically, her voice muffled through her folded arms. Naraku's eyebrows furrowed, his lips pouting slightly as he stared at Jade's head.

 _'What does she want from me? Is she not interested in playing?'_ Naraku wondered. He crossed his arms and inhaled deeply through his nose. He debated telling her about his hobbies, wondering why she cared to know. Was she bored? Was she curious? Was she looking for something to use against him once again? Naraku shook his head slightly, realizing how ridiculous the situation became.

"I like to read. Nothing in particular. I read whatever I find interesting at the moment." He stated calmly. He watched as Jade's green eyes peered out at him from over her tanned arms.

"You draw too, right?" she inquired, finally raising her head from the table.

"Yes."

"Anything else?" Jade urged with a smile. She saw Naraku blink before looking away.

"What about you?" he countered quickly.

"Oh, well, I don't mind reading, but I rarely have time for it anymore. And I'm picky. I play video games, too." Jade explained, nervously scratching her head. She didn't expect him to give in nor ask about her. Naraku nodded and leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, tapping a slow, steady beat on the table with a single finger.

"I see." He replied forcefully, keeping his gaze on the table.

 _'He's an awkward mess. It's almost endearing….almost.'_ Jade thought with a gentle smile. This Naraku amused her more than the pissed-off Naraku she dreamed about the previous night after setting him up.

"You missed me." Naraku suddenly shot in a low voice, now making eye contact with Jade, who quickly covered her mouth and snorted loudly.

"Hahaha! Would it make you feel better if I said yes?" Jade giggled.

"No."

"Buuuuuuuullshit." Jade's smile was wide and it seemed to mock Naraku's entire existence. He cleared his throat.

"I don't care if you miss me or not, but I am intrigued as to why if you did." Naraku corrected her, taking another drink of water and keeping his posture straight and professional. Jade swung side to side in her seat fluidly while snickering. She lipped the word, "intrigued," while air-quoting it with her fingers. Naraku clenched his teeth as he watched her.

"Whatever, dude. Me admitting to it would make you warm and fuzzy on the inside." Jade argued with a wicked smile on her face.

"Are you saying you didn't miss me?" Naraku asked, deciding to avoid her statement entirely.

"No, I didn't. We could literally put a hamster in the lab and I would be okay. I just missed something else breathing oxygen in the same room as me."

"Bruce bought a guinea pig and put it in the lab for that same reason. I fed it to a snake." Naraku told her with a smile.

"Then you're forcing me to miss you, which is you admitting that you want me to miss you,"

"I….I can't make you feel anything."

"You make me feel like a natural woman," Jade sang while holding her fist in the air.

"What?"

"I'm going to refer to my previous answer of, "bullshit." I hope you don't mind." Jade stated arrogantly with a shrug and a smirk. She took a drink of water and winked at him. Naraku slowly dragged his tongue across the front of his teeth, wondering how he lost control of the conversation.

"Point out a recent interaction where I made you feel something. You cannot, because I haven't been around." Naraku said.

"You got upset when I was helping you and then right after that, you avoided the lab when I was in there. You made me feel like I did something wrong." Jade pointed out candidly.

"That wasn't my intention. You made those feelings up yourself by misinterpreting my actions." Naraku replied honestly. He avoided her for his own sake, not to make her feel bad….but he wasn't going to tell her that, especially if she ended up suffering just as he had.

"Sooooo, you were-you know what? Someday, I will have nice conversation with you." Jade exhaled while shaking her head slightly, massaging her temples lightly with her fingers.

"Never." Naraku replied with a grin.

000000

"I thought this said you things were intelligent," Naraku said to the guinea pig sitting on the floor between his legs. He had both feet pressed against the wall to keep the pig from running under the couch...again. In one hand, he held his smartphone, scrolling down a website's wall of text. In the other hand, a carrot pinched between his fingers. Naraku heard the curious chirping of the guinea pig as it crawled up his thigh in an attempt to snatch the carrot from his hand. He lifted his hand into the air and out of the rodent's reach, his eyes still scanning over the instructions carefully.

"I guess we'll start with simple commands and work our way up. If you're going to live here, it's going to be under my control." Naraku sighed as he placed his phone on the floor beside him. He scooped the guinea pig up with one hand and placed it against the wall.

"Stay." Naraku ordered sternly, holding the palm of his hand to the pig's nose. Naraku pulled his hand back, but the guinea pig chased his hand, eagerly chirping for food and attention. Naraku scooped its body up again and placed its butt at the wall.

"Stay," Naraku repeated, pressing the palm of his hand against its nose once more. When Naraku pulled his hand away, the guinea pig sat for a moment, but then it immediately shot forward and tried to snatch the carrot once more. Naraku groaned quietly, placing the guinea pig back at the wall.

"You're fast, but not smart. Let's work on that. Now, stay," Naraku pulled away slowly and saw the pig's plump body flatten slightly as it relaxed on the floor, seemingly accepting its situation. Naraku waited ten seconds before reaching forward and scratching its gray ear. The other ear was a lighter, creamier gray, like most of its body. But the one gray ear, the darker one that matched the random blotches on its body, was the one Naraku liked to scratch the most. The guinea pig didn't seem to mind, either.

"Good pig." Naraku said, holding the carrot to the pig's mouth and allowing it a single nibble. He pulled the carrot away and held it in his fist to hide the sight of it from the rodent. The guinea pig sniffed the air and looked around for its orange treat and when it realized it was nowhere nearby, it took a few small steps forward, nose held high in the air.

 _'Do guinea pigs have keen senses of smell?'_ Naraku wondered, holding both closed fists on the floor. The guinea pig waddled forward while squeaking lightly, examining his fists. The rodent chose his right fist and circled it excitedly. Naraku arched an eyebrow, turning his fist over and opening it, revealing the carrot to the pig. He expected it to just take a bite, but instead, it grabbed the carrot with its teeth and ran to the wall with its butt facing Naraku so it could eat in peace.

"Perhaps you're smarter than I thought," Naraku sighed, picking the guinea pig up with one hand. It let out a few loud squeals as it frantically wiggled its legs in hopes of escaping his grasp and returning to its meal. Naraku plucked the carrot from the floor and placed his furry hostage back down on the carpet. The guinea pig stared at him and then began grinding its teeth.

"Am I annoying you?" he asked the pig with a chuckle. The grinding noise from its teeth became louder. Naraku held the carrot in front of its nose and allowed it another bite, its irritated teeth-grinding subsiding. He leaned forward and tapped the floor, the guinea pig waddling to the spot he tapped.

"Stay." Naraku commanded, pulling his hand from its nose. The guinea pig flattened out once more and stayed in place. Naraku allowed it a few more nibbles from the carrot and scratched its ear again.

He practiced the command a few more times before the guinea pig started to waddle around and chirp impatiently. Naraku scooped it up with one hand and walked over to its cage, placing it inside and then dropping the remainder of the carrot into the food bowl, latching the cage door and walking towards his kitchen. He poured some soap into his hands, using his forearm to turn the faucet on as he scrubbed his hands. Naraku turned his head when he heard the loud vibrate of his cell phone alerting him of a message received. He turned the faucet off and shook the excess water from his hands before snatching the hand towel hanging off his oven door handle, massaging it around and through both hands before hanging it back on the handle. He turned around, striding towards his phone and bending over to grab it, his hair falling forward and creating a dark curtain around his head before he straightened his posture, his thick black hair now surrounding his head like a mane.

 _'Another email from Bruce,'_ Naraku realized, tapping the notification and sitting on the arm of his couch.

' _ **Naraku,**_

 _ **I signed and turned in your paperwork for an office and it looks like all the offices of the Science Building are occupied. However, the building next to the North end of the Science Building is starting its renovations next week and it is being turned into multiple graduate student offices. One will be reserved for you. It will have a window, so maybe you can get some sun on that pale skin of yours.**_

 _ **Cheers,**_

 _ **Bruce'**_

"Hm," Naraku hummed, dropping his phone on the couch and standing up. He stared at his bare arms as he walked towards the sliding glass door that led to his patio. He slowly turned his arms over with a frown on his face, spreading his fingers on his hands.

"I'm not that pale." He finally said aloud. He was fair-skinned, but he wasn't a sickly pale. Naraku rolled his eyes, wondering why he was even giving Bruce's comment a thought as he walked back to his couch. His fingers slid under the sketchbook that sat on his table and lifted it into his hands as he leaned back. He pulled the pencil from the sketchbook's binding and began scribbling an image. It didn't take long for him to realize he was bored, though, so he tossed his sketchbook back onto the table and stared at his phone.

 _'I wonder if Jade is working tonight,'_ He grabbed his phone and poked the screen a few times until he reached the contact list where her workplace number was listed. He hit the button and held the phone to his ear.

"The Pizza Bar. How can I help you?" a gentle male voice asked.

"I would like to place an order for delivery," Naraku answered, tilting his head back as he closed his eyes, thinking of a name to use this time around.

"Alright, what can I get for you?"

"A small cheese pizza."

"Any breadsticks, dessert, or drinks with that?"

"No, just the pizza. Oh, and can Jade deliver this one?"

"Sure. Can I get a name?"

"Ardon. Philis Ardon." Naraku stated, making sure he pronounced every syllable clearly. He heard the man on the other end of the phone snort and then quickly recover with a cough.

"Excuse me. I uh, I sneezed. Uh, are you related to a Mr. Dixon Cider, by any chance?" the man asked, his voice being strained by what Naraku assumed was laughter riding at the back of the man's throat. Naraku held back his own laugh, impressed that the man remembered such a lame joke.

"He's my lover. We have a ritual where we make love every month or so and then call for pizza. It's my turn this time." Naraku explained.

"Aw, that's really cute. So, uh, same address as last time?" His voice was starting to ramp higher and sound more forced. Naraku smirked.

"Yes."

"Your total is eight-fifty. Cash or card?"

"Cash."

"Alright. It'll be about forty minutes."

"I cannot wait." Naraku chuckled before ending the call and holding his phone to his chest. He imagined Jade wasn't going to be nearly as amused as her coworker was.

Naraku spent the forty-minute wait tidying up his living room. His research notes and sketches were dispersed through the room, sitting on various tables, end-tables, and shelves. Naraku gathered those into separate piles before carrying the research pile to his office and the art pile to his bedroom. He folded the blanket he slept with on the couch the previous night and draped it across the back of the couch. His eyes scanned the room slowly, searching for any paper or binder out of place.

"Yes," Naraku chuckled when he heard a car door slam. He could taste Jade's irritation already. Naraku straightened his black T-shirt and fluffed his hair as he strode to his door, opening it after hearing the three harsh knocks.

"One small cheese pizza for a very funny man." Jade announced tonelessly. She arched an eyebrow when she realized his hair was pulled in front of his shoulders, almost like he prepared for her arrival. Naraku smirked as he reached for his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Where were you today?" Naraku asked Jade curiously.

"Not in the lab, sir. Eight-fifty, please." Jade replied quickly, hoping to end this confrontation with him quickly. Naraku counted out the money in front of her, just as he did before. He took the pizza box from her hands and placed it on the small table beside his door. Naraku looked back at Jade saw her right hand and wrist were wrapped up in a supportive gauze.

"Your hand," He said, looking her in the eyes, but hers were covered by sunglasses. Jade folded her arm behind her back and exhaled sharply.

"It's fine. Have a good evening."

"Hold on, dear. I haven't given you a tip, yet." Naraku stated, making sure his deep voice was as teasing and enticing as he could make it.

"Of course." Jade inhaled deeply through her nose, turning back to him.

"And this time," Naraku began, placing two copper coins into Jade's palm, "I'll give you two whole cents as a tip and to remind me how many times I've done this to you so far."

"You spoil me, sir. Only ninety-eight more deliveries until I get a whole dollar from you." Jade replied with a tone drenched so heavily in sarcasm, Naraku thought the building would implode. He chuckled deeply, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"There is a way to receive hundreds of dollars from me if you would,"

"No, sir, I will not blow you." Jade interrupted, her tone still retaining the heavy sarcasm as she straightened the black sunglasses over her eyes.

"No, no, you silly woman. I was speaking about you becoming my lab assistant." Naraku stated with a cheeky grin. Jade's lips stretched into a smile that reflected her patience; thin and false.

"In that case, sir, you can blow me." Jade responded evenly.

"You don't have to call me, "sir." But I do like it." Naraku chirped. Jade mouthed the words, "Blow me," as slowly as she could before clearing her throat.

"I'm on the clock. I have to maintain some level of professionalism, no matter how much I dislike the customer." Jade explained with sigh.

"Heh, you don't dislike me."

"Ooh, you're right. I don't." Jade said back, her face almost showing the pain from holding back how much she wanted to scream at him. Naraku leaned forward slightly and inhaled deeply through his nose.

"The scent of anger excites me," Naraku purred as he backed away and closed his door. Jade held back the extremely powerful urge to flip his door off with both middle fingers and shout. She marched out of the building and to her car, sitting inside and gripping her steering wheel as powerfully as she could. She let go of the wheel with her injured wrist when a sharp pain rang through her arm and opened her mouth to scream. Instead, she began giggling.

' _I can't hate him.'_ She realized in the midst of her laughing fit. He angered her, yes, but she couldn't bring herself to find something, anything, to hate about him.

000000

Jade pulled her bedroom door closed behind her, walking down the hallway to go work in the lab for a few hours. She wasn't sure if she wanted to work her full five hours or not. She spotted Sango on the couch with Kirara in her lap and waved to her.

"Off to the lab." Jade announced.

"Aw, you look cute today," Sango sang sweetly, gesturing at Jade's body.

"I do?" Jade looked down at herself skeptically, brushing off her slightly fitted jeans and blue T-shirt.

"Yeah! Your clothes look like they fit! I can see your curves."

"Oh, I better go change, then." Jade stated half-jokingly as she jerked her thumb in the direction of her room.

"No, no, no! You look nice! Casual!" Sango insisted, trying to cover up her previous use of the word, "cute."

"Okay." Jade shrugged.

"Oh, do you have to work all day in the lab?"

"I don't have to. Why?"

"Today is my day off and I didn't know if you wanted to hang out. Kagome is working late again, so we're on our own for dinner. I figured we could try to make something so she can eat when she gets home."

"Sure. Uh, let me clock in a few hours and then I'll text you when I'm on my way,"

"Oh! Wait! How about I go to the lab with you? You're allowed to have visitors, right?" Sango asked curiously, sitting forward on the couch and causing Kirara to leap to the floor and search for a less volatile spot to nap on. Jade's face twisted as her eyes seemed to scream "NOOOOOOOOO!" for her.

"How about another day? I won't be doing anything science-y today." Jade insisted as she waved her hand.

"I'm going to hold you to it! You're going to show me that lab next time, right?" Sango asked while pointing at her friend. She noticed Jade's uncertainty and decided not to press it this time.

"Sure, sure."

"Alright. You promised. Do you want me to drive you there and pick you up?"

"Hm? Why?"

"Your wrist," Sango replied as she pointed at Jade's wrapped wrist.

"I can drive. It doesn't hurt that much."

"Your doctor said to rest it, didn't he?"

"Yeah, but,"

"I'm driving you!" Sango blurted, jumping from the couch and jogging back to her room to grab her keys. She ran back into the living room and towards the door, slipping on her shoes.

"I guess you're driving me," Jade giggled, following her friend out of the apartment and locking the door. She walked to Sango's white car, waiting at the door until she heard the click of the doors being unlocked. Jade sat down and clumsily used her left hand to strap the seatbelt across her body seeing as any twisting of the wrist caused her pain. Otherwise, it felt fine. Sango turned her car on and stretched her arms over her steering wheel.

"You know you can ask me for help, right?" Sango asked Jade with a serious expression.

"Y-Yeah, but I don't really need it. So I won't ask."

"Sometimes, we don't always need it, but it is nice to have. I know you like to think you have it handled all the time, but you don't."

"Um, did I say something weird when I drank the other night orrrrr," Jade trailed off, her face twisted with confusion.

"No. Well, you kind of hit on me, but that's not too unusual. I don't know, Jade. I'm just getting this feeling from you, like I can sense your aura, and, just….I don't want you to think you have to deal with everything alone. I know you, but I don't know your life, and we live together."

"I don't want to force my life on you guys. Kagome is uneasy with weed and doesn't care for video games, and you,"

"I don't give a shit about video games, but I really enjoyed watching you play with your friends. I honestly haven't laughed that hard in-I can't even remember." Sango interrupted, pressing a hand to her chest while smiling. Jade bit her lips together and nodded slowly.

"Oh. Well, maybe I can stream with you two in the background or something," Jade suggested while staring at her lap shyly.

"I'd love that! We've already dragged you to do things we want to do. Maybe it's time we sit home, eat junk food, and watch you play for once."

"If you want to. I wouldn't mind that." Jade replied with a shrug and a smile.

"We'll have to plan the night ahead of time. Alright, let's get you to the lab," Sango announced, backing out of the parking spot and driving out of the lot.

Jade waved to Sango, watching as her friend backed out of the space and cruised out of the Science Building parking lot. A breath of relief escaped Jade's lungs when the car disappeared from her sight. Sango had unknowingly pulled up next to Naraku's car and Jade wasn't so sure he wouldn't leap out of the trunk or something obnoxious like that. She knew he wouldn't, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibility with him, either.

"Fucking prick. Got me paranoid." Jade grumbled with irritation as she walked towards the double doors. She pulled her keys from her pocket as she turned into the main hallway leading down to the lab. Jade saw the door was nudged open slightly and the lights were on, so she pocketed her keys. She pulled the door open wider and saw a swish of white hair as Sesshomaru twisted around and chucked something at her. Jade quickly squatted down, the beaker soaring over her head and smashing against the wall of the hallway behind her.

"What the fuck, dude? Really?" Jade snapped heatedly, standing up and clenching her teeth. A quiet breath left Sesshomaru's mouth as he crossed his arms.

"I thought you were Naraku." Sesshomaru said nonchalantly. Jade felt her anger dissipate quickly. She couldn't quite blame him at that point.

"Surprise?" Jade replied uncertainly, shrugging dramatically.

"I suppose I should be content that it's only you," he stated dryly as he turned back to the box on the counter, sifting through its contents gently.

"Don't worry about the mess. I've got it." Jade responded bitterly, walking into the lab and towards the storage room where the broom awaited her guidance.

 _'I should just start calling it, "my broom," at this point.'_ she thought while gritting her teeth, snatching the broom and dustpan and marching back to the hallway where the broken glass lay. Jade pressed the dustpan down with her foot, carefully sweeping the bits of glass she could see into the pan. Next, she walked back and forth around the pan, looking for any shards she may have missed.

"There you are," she said under her breath after spotting a shard and trapping it with the bristles of the broom. She looked up when she saw someone turn the nearest corner. It was Naraku, dressed as sharply as usual with black slacks and a white dress shirt. He was carrying his usual lunch; a salad with no dressing. He was wearing his usual expression; a knowing smirk and eyes that pierced the soul.

"Ah, finally demoted from Lab Assistant to Lab Maid, I see." Naraku remarked.

"Ha." Jade said while shaking her head, kneeling down to grab the dustpan. Naraku walked to the door, planning to close it in Jade's face, but he quickly leaned back when he saw Sesshomaru hurl something towards him. He heard a thud and glass shattering and turned back to see the damage and laugh at Sesshomaru's failure, but instead, his eyes locked on Jade, who was staring wide-eyed at nothing, her hand pressed against her cheek as a dark red liquid gradually dribbled between her fingers.

"Excellent aim, Sesshomaru." Naraku shot as he walked towards Jade, Sesshomaru moving past him a little more quickly.

"Maybe if you were half a man and would take it like one," Sesshomaru replied calmly, kneeling in front of Jade. He reached out to move her hand from her face, but she jerked back, as if her consciousness logged back online.

"Are you," Naraku began slowly, but stopping when Jade smiled widely.

"I'm good." Jade said in a chipper manner that seemed to hiss, "Murder," to Naraku.

"If you allow me to look at it, I can see if you need stitches or not." Sesshomaru stated while slowly standing up.

"Ah, you didn't seem too worried about that possibility when you started throwing beakers at people. Why start now?" Jade asked with a laugh as her smile widened. Naraku had already taken a step back from her. If this was going to be the moment she lashed out, he wanted nothing to do with it. The young woman let out an annoyed groan before walking away to find a bathroom. Naraku and Sesshomaru watched her quietly before glancing at one another.

"I thought Bruce said she was level-headed," Sesshomaru said cynically.

"You struck her in the face with a beaker. I'm shocked she didn't slap you….and disappointed." Naraku retorted smoothly. Sesshomaru shrugged slightly, walking back into the lab to continue unpacking his boxes. Naraku almost followed him, but he stopped and looked back at the abandoned broom, dustpan, and broken glass. He quickly walked into the lab to place his salad on his desk and then marched back into the hallway, sweeping the shards of glass into the dustpan and disposing of them into the glass-disposal bin inside the lab next to the door. Naraku swiped his salad and turned back to the door.

"Going to tattle on me?" Sesshomaru asked, keeping his back turned to Naraku.

"No. I'll allow Jade to handle you in whatever way she deems necessary." Naraku chuckled as he walked out the door.


	8. Senpai

**Senpai**

 **AN – No, I didn't die.**

Jade blinked multiple times, trying not to look at Naraku, but she couldn't help it. He was leaned so close to her face and it stirred uneasiness inside her. He was examining the cut on her cheek, making sure it didn't have shards of glass stuck inside. He had one gloved hand cupped around the cut on her face while the other held a pair of tweezers. She knew he was helping, but it was still uncomfortable. His "kindness" came with a price and she was trying to figure out what she "owed" him.

"Found another. Hold still." Naraku ordered, noticing the trembling in Jade's shoulders.

"Alright." Jade replied, closing her eyes when she felt his hand grip her face a little tighter than previously. She heard the tiny clink when the tweezers clamped around the shard. Naraku steadily pulled the glass from her wound and placed it down on the paper towel with the two other pieces he found.

"That was the last one."

"Will I need stitches?"

"No. This will heal fine on its own. I doubt it will even scar." Naraku replied, placing the tweezers on the towel next to the pieces of glass. He grabbed a tube from the first aid kit and unscrewed the cap, squeezing the thick, clear cream onto his gloved finger. Naraku placed his finger on the cut and began smearing the cream gently.

"Ow." Jade complained, opening one eye.

"You're fine." Naraku countered, placing the tube of cream down, reaching into the kit and pinching a gauze pad between his index finger and thumb.

"It still hurts." Jade pointed out. Naraku shook his head as he opened the package and pressed the gauze against her cheek.

"Hold it." He insisted calmly. Jade pressed two fingers against the gauze as Naraku pulled small pieces of tape apart.

"Is there really a reason you have me sitting between your legs?"

"Better angle. And to make you uncomfortable. Is it working?" Naraku asked her with a grin, leaning forward to begin taping the gauze to her face.

"Nope."

"Liar. There, it is done." Naraku said with an exhale as he stood up.

"Wait, wait,"

"What, what?"

"No kiss to make it feel better?" Jade asked while pouting, her bottom lip quivering slightly. Naraku quickly flicked Jade in the nose, causing her to flinch and moan as she cupped her hands around her nose. He threw the glass shards he pulled from her wound away, grabbing the tweezers and walking towards the sink.

"I assume you informed Bruce about the situation?" Naraku questioned, raising his voice over the sound of the running water as he scrubbed the tweezers.

"Yeah. I hate that I did, though."

"Why?"

"I hate being a snitch."

"He has to be informed of every lab injury. You weren't snitching."

"Totally snitching. I doubt you report every injury you get."

"I will not argue any further with you." Naraku turned the water off, peeling his gloves from his hands and turning around to the trashcan that he left back at the table. He rolled the gloves into a ball and launched them in the air, watching as they landed directly into the middle of the opening.

"Two points!" Jade exclaimed.

"Stop encouraging me." Naraku bit.

"Here we go," Jade groaned, tilting her head back to look at the ceiling, as if praying to a higher power. Naraku snickered as he pulled a handful of pens from the cup on the edge of the table, singly hurling them at Jade and hitting whatever part of her body he could.

"Are you mad yet? Why won't you get mad? Get mad. I like you when you're mad." Naraku said, tossing a pen every time he said, "mad." Part of him hoped he could condition her to get angry in this brief moment, but Jade dodged, grabbed a few pens and tossed them back to him. She didn't even try to hit him. She just gave him more ammunition. Within seconds, they were tossing pens back and forth to one another, trying to see who would drop them first.

"Ow! Fucker!" Jade hissed, catching one at an awkward angle with her injured wrist. Naraku snorted, so Jade tossed the pen up high. Naraku leapt straight up and caught it between two fingers, his black hair falling wildly as he landed. He looked at Jade without even bothering to fix his hair. She was just staring at him, her mouth left open.

"Impressed?" he asked, wiggling the pen between his fingers.

"A little. Nice catch." Jade admitted with a grin. Naraku rolled his eyes while flipping his hair back into place.

"I liked it better when you were leaving me clever little notes that invoked my wrath."

"Uh, fuck you, too, I guess? I don't know." Jade shrugged as she pulled her phone from her pocket to check the time. She figured she would let Sango know she was almost done fooling around in the lab. The door of the lab opened and Sesshomaru walked in with the shorter Bruce behind him, a familiar folder in hand with the usual, "I'm not amused," expression he wore on his face.

"Jade, I have your labs graded and critiqued. You're very ready to be the lab TA. My notes are mostly tiny little nitpicks. Unfortunately, I dropped the folder and the labs are out of order." Bruce stated as he handed the folder back to her.

"It's whatever. I'll just reorganize them." Jade replied, taking the folder from him and walking to the center table.

"The table is mine for the day. I plan on starting a little experiment." Sesshomaru announced, motioning for Jade to move. Jade felt a smile slowly creep onto her face as she looked over at Bruce, who crossed his arms.

"Jade, stay right where you are. Use all of the table if you want. As for you two clowns; sit right here, right next to each other. Grab pens and a notebook or some paper." Bruce ordered, tapping the two stools Jade and Naraku were using minutes before. Naraku and Sesshomaru glanced at one another with frowns, but they both walked towards their respective desks across the lab from each other, snatched their notebooks and pens, and walked towards the stools. Naraku sat down on one stool, but Sesshomaru hooked the other with his foot, moving it away from Naraku.

"You wound me, Sesshomaru." Naraku said, his lips curved upwards. Sesshomaru said nothing as he sat down, keeping his attention on Bruce.

"You know, the last time I had to give a lecture about how dangerous throwing glass objects is, it was while I was teaching a bunch of first-graders." Bruce began while twisting the cap of the marker he held.

"Bruce," Naraku began, but stopping when his professor held a finger up to stop him.

"I'm going to give a lecture. You two will take notes and then I will give an oral quiz going over what I've lectured about."

"Why?" Naraku and Sesshomaru asked simultaneously, the annoyance and skepticism bubbling in their voices and expressions.

"Because I said so. Jade, you just keep doing whatever." Bruce said, waving his hand to the young woman who was organizing her graded lab papers on the table behind Naraku and Sesshomaru. She glanced up just long enough to nod before returning to her papers.

"I will not waste my time taking notes over concepts I already know about." Sesshomaru stated bitterly. Bruce smirked at him and inhaled through his nose deeply.

"Then I will not review your thesis proposal until the night before you present it to the committee. I will also inform the other members of the committee to do the same. That's for starters." Bruce responded while crossing his arms. He saw the resistance of Sesshomaru's spirit diminish immediately while Naraku chuckled deeply, his arms also crossed.

"He isn't bluffing." Naraku said with a knowing smirk.

"Alright, boys. Notebooks open. Pens uncapped. Oh, and, I believe you both owe Jade an apology and you both owe her some gratitude."

"Gratitude?" Sesshomaru asked doubtfully, a single eyebrow arched.

"Yes, gratitude. Jade has so kindly decided not to sue any of us or the university. So, go on," Bruce urged, motioning with both hands for both grad students to turn around and face Jade. Sesshomaru half-turned his head first.

"Thank you." He said, his tone almost choking the words out. Jade snickered, but she didn't care if he meant it or not. She knew Bruce was going to drag him more than she could at the moment. Her eyes shifted to Naraku, who looked like he was still thinking about what to say. After a moment, he turned his body and locked gazes with her.

"Thank you so incredibly much, Jade. You are a beautiful, merciful angel. I do hope you can forgive me for not throwing a beaker at your face and for picking the shards out of your wound. Next time, I will throw one and it will be the four liter beaker and you can pick the shards out yourself." Naraku recited passionately and never losing his usual smirk. Jade frowned and opened her mouth to say something, but Naraku had already turned his back to her, seemingly uninterested in her reply to him.

"Alright, shut up. We'll save the apology portion of this lecture for the end. So, without further ado," Bruce uncapped a dry-erase marker and began writing on the board behind him. "List off the essential elements for a human body,"

"Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen are the four main elements. They make up about ninety-five to ninety-six percent of the human body." Naraku began.

"Good, good. What about the rest?" Bruce insisted.

"Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur, Sodium, Chlorine, Magnesium are the major elements. They create about three and a half percent of the human body." Sesshomaru added on.

"Boron, Chromium, Cobalt, Copper, Fluorine, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum," Naraku continued, counting them off in his head.

"Selenium, Silicon, Tin, and Vanadium." Sesshomaru ended, tapping the end of his pen on his notebook.

"There's one more," Bruce stated, tapping the board with his finger after writing down the symbols of the elements his students listed. Naraku and Sesshomaru glanced at one another again. They both counted the elements on the board and then stared at the huge poster of the Periodic Table beside the board to process which one they left out.

"Arsenic." Jade announced with a sigh, continuing with her paper organization. Naraku and Sesshomaru both turned back and looked at her.

"In comes Jade to save the day again. What do we say, boys?" Bruce asked expectantly, scribbling the, "As," symbol on the board.

"I would have eventually guessed it." Sesshomaru remarked. Jade looked at him and smirked.

"Sure, Sesshomaru." Jade responded as both eyebrows rose. The white-haired man's eyes narrowed slightly, but he turned back towards the board instead of engaging her further.

"Well, I, for one, welcome our new laboratory overlord. Thank you, Jade. You've done so much for all of us. You beautiful angel of mercy." Naraku recited, mirroring his passion from his earlier show of gratitude towards her. Jade's hands now rested on her hips, her head tilted slightly as her eyebrows furrowed. She was still smiling, though. She couldn't decide whether to laugh or be offended or to flip the table on both him and Sesshomaru.

"I don't think I like his tone," Jade said aloud, pointing at Naraku briefly.

"Fair enough. Naraku, that's one point off your quiz." Bruce stated.

"Oh no. Whatever shall I do?" Naraku replied dryly as he turned back towards his professor.

"The man the highest score belongs to is the man who receives his thesis samples first." Bruce chirped, his bright smile shining through his bristled beard.

"You already sent for my samples." Sesshomaru pointed out.

"I sent for Naraku's samples two months ago and they've taken several laps around the country and ended up in China for a while. Until you physically have your hands on the box, they're mine to do with as I please. I will physically fuck those boxes if that means upholding my rules." The professor explained smugly, quickly tapping the end of the marker into the palm of his hand, the pace mirroring the angered pulse of blood through his veins.

"Understood." Sesshomaru said, crossing his arms.

"So, you've listed the essential elements to the human body. Can you tell me what's not essential to the human body?" Bruce questioned, tapping the board once more.

"The remaining elements we did not list." Naraku stated, a loud breath escaping his lungs as he skillfully spun and weaved his pen through his long fingers.

"Glass to the fucking face!" The sentence burst from Bruce's mouth loudly as he scribbled the word, "Glass," on the board, underlining it rabidly. Jade held her hand over her mouth as she held back a loud snort. Both Naraku and Sesshomaru had rolled their eyes, groaned, and looked up at the ceiling, hoping it would collapse and crush them all.

"Jade, was this your idea?" Naraku asked aloud.

"No, actually," Jade replied, placing her hand on her left cheek, which was covered with the gauze pad. The cut still stung.

"So, who can tell me, vaguely, what glass is made of?" Bruce interjected. He saw Naraku's hand slowly rise into the air. Bruce nodded at him and prepared himself for a smart-ass remark.

"What if I told you that I had nothing to do with Jade being struck in the face with a beaker? The genius to my left might have an idea of who is to blame, though."

"Something tells me Jade wasn't his intended victim. It wouldn't surprise me if you purposely dodged to let her get hit." Bruce answered quickly. Jade looked up and frowned as she gripped her shirt.

"Right, right. Just like I made her stand in the perfect place at the perfect time. How about we go back to the man who was throwing the beakers in the first place? You know, that lab safety issue?"

"Bruce, Naraku didn't," Jade began.

"You set one of my previous assistants on fire and you expect me to only lecture Sesshomaru on lab safety?" Bruce continued, ignoring Jade's interjection.

"Why not lecture me back when that happened? Also, I did not set them on fire. I told them to be careful with the ethanol."

"And you decided to randomly pick up a smoking habit in the lab? Shut up. You still had something to do with this and I have to opportunistically punish you." Bruce snapped calmly, running his free hand through his short graying hair.

"Come on, now! Punish him for that, but not for this!" Jade spat loudly as she pointed at her face. Naraku turned back to her and Jade locked gazes with him for a moment. He seemed angry with her comment. Bruce was staring at her with bewilderment.

"If I apologize to Jade, will you end this charade?" Sesshomaru finally asked, tapping his notebook. He was the only one who seemed uninterested in the outburst.

"Sesshomaru, your apology already sounds heartfelt, genuine, and not at all forced. Now, what is glass?" Bruce cleared his throat and gestured at the word, "Glass," on the board. Jade's mouth dropped open.

 _'Did he just ignore me?'_ Jade thought as she gritted her teeth. Naraku was an asshole, yes, but he actually didn't do anything….this time.

"Glass is street code for heroin or meth." Naraku quipped.

"Should I take another point off your quiz?" Bruce sighed.

"You're going to give him his samples first no matter what I do."

"You don't know that."

"Oh, but I do." Naraku replied as he stood up, closing his notebook and placing his pen in his pocket.

"Running away?" Sesshomaru asked with a small smirk. It was barely visible, but Naraku could almost feel it. He inhaled through his nose before quickly lifting his foot and kicking the top of the stool Sesshomaru sat on, toppling the white-haired man to the floor pathetically.

"Naraku, are you," Bruce started, but stopped when Naraku pointed at him.

"You should probably stay out of my reach." Naraku warned him, his voice eerily calm. Naraku waited for Sesshomaru to sit up and glare at him before smirking and chuckling deeply. He grabbed his notebook and turned around, striding out of the lab. Jade followed behind him quickly.

"Naraku, I," Jade flinched when Naraku whipped around towards her, his hand thrusting out. Her eyes closed, but after a moment of awkward silence, she slowly opened them, staring at the palm of his hand. His fingers coiled down as he lowered his hand.

"I wasn't going to hit you." Naraku said quickly.

"Natural response. But I didn't mean for that to happen back there. I didn't think Bruce would drag you into it."

"Well, now you know," Naraku patted her head a couple of times before turning around to head towards his car. He frowned when Jade caught up to him and looked at him.

"You're not mad at me, are you?" Jade asked him worriedly, pointing at herself. She saw his eyebrow rise before he looked down at her.

"No, well, not about this."

"What are you mad about?"

"I'm angry that Sesshomaru, in one try, convinced you to snitch on him to Bruce. I've been working on you for weeks and all I receive is a note saying you miss me. I'm incredibly offended." Naraku stated with frustration. He opened the double-doors leading to the parking lot, Jade trailing behind him with her mouth open in a frozen reply.

"What the fu-you said it wasn't snitching earlier," Jade argued skeptically. Naraku walked to his car and opened the driver door, tossing his notebook into the passenger seat before leaning forward on the hood.

"I lied. You were snitching."

"And I didn't miss you."

"I know a lie when I hear one."

"Hear this," Jade retorted while flipping him off. Naraku chuckled while shaking his head.

"Now you're too easy. This isn't even fun." He responded with a quiet sigh.

"What?"

"You're too easy to irritate now. What happened to the Jade who stared vacantly at my attempts to annoy her?"

"Go home. Nobody wants you here." Jade sighed as she crossed her arms, leaning her back against the brick wall of the building. Naraku shrugged as he dramatically slid into his car, closing his door and turning his car on.

 _'She isn't leaving?'_ he wondered, looking around for her car. No green car in sight. He rolled his window down and leaned his head out.

"Did you not drive here?" he asked Jade curiously.

"Go away." Jade replied loudly, her arms still crossed.

"I assume you're waiting, then?"

"Please, go get fucked."

"If you insist," Naraku turned his car off and opened his door, standing up out of his car smoothly and closing the door by knocking into it with his hip. Next, he strutted forward, popping his hips side to side before sitting on the hood of his car, keeping his legs spread wide as he leaned back, his palms pressing against the warm metal. Jade smiled and shook her head the entire time.

"You're so weird." Jade said while smiling, her face showing a twist of confusion, embarrassment, and amusement.

"You want me." Naraku teased, tossing his head back. His long black hair seemed to move like water and Jade wished he would drown in it.

 _'If I move fast, I can stomp him right in the balls.'_ Jade thought comically, but her body didn't budge. Plus, she knew better than to think Naraku wasn't on guard or quick to react, either.

"Join me." Naraku offered, patting the spot beside him on his hood.

"I'm good." Jade waved her hand at him. Naraku tilted his head to the side before closing his legs and straightening his posture.

"I believe I might be in the mood for more pizza tonight."

"Yeaaaaah, I've been meaning to ask you about that. What do you do with the pizza?" Jade asked, a single eyebrow raised with suspicion.

"What do you mean?"

"You don't eat junk food, so I highly doubt you eat the pizza. Do you masturbate with it?"

"It is none of your business. I pay for it, so it's mine to do with as I please."

"Oh my God, you do masturbate with it, don't you?" Jade responded, her eyes widening slightly as she began to believe her own statement.

"No."

"It's part of some sick ritual where you punish yourself for wanting it."

"And they say I'm fucked in the head," Naraku remarked as he tapped the side of his head with his finger. Jade shrugged while giggling. If he wasn't going to tell her, then she was going to make things up.

"So, I've been thinking," Jade began as she kicked a small pebble with the tip of her shoe.

"Uh oh,"

"And I think I do want to be your lab assistant. However, I would like to discuss it before agreeing to it. Maybe write and sign a contract?" Jade suggested. She saw Naraku's eyes narrow slightly as he stood up, crossing his arms.

"Why do you want to be my assistant now?"

"Dude, you fucking win! Give it up already!" Jade whined, pulling on her hair dramatically. Naraku sauntered forward, placing a hand on the brick wall beside Jade and leaning into the building.

"Did you honestly think that giving into my demands would stop me?"

"Maybe," Jade winced. His deep, melodic chuckle sent Jade into a mental frenzy, but she remained calm on the outside.

"If anything, it makes me want more." Naraku admitted.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Jade breathed as Sango's car pulled up to the curb. Naraku turned and stared at the driver, recognizing her as the woman he saw Jade sparring with at the gym.

 _'Actually, I see that woman at the gym a lot.'_ Naraku realized as he slipped his sunglasses back on his face, watching as Jade opened the passenger door.

"Hey, Jade. I already went to the-what happened to your face?" Sango asked quickly.

"Uh, science?" Jade answered uncertainly, having forgotten about the gauze pad on her cheek entirely.

"Was it an accident? Did he do it?" Sango's tone was now serious and harsh. Jade smiled and waved her hand dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah, it was an accident. He didn't do it."

"I thought you said you weren't going to do science today,"

"I didn't. Someone else did. New grad student. He science-d all over my face."

"Oh. Well, is it bad?"

"Nah, it's just a cut." Jade insisted, watching as Sango's eyes shifted to something behind her. An awkward smile twisted onto her lips and Jade immediately frowned.

"Um, do you know him?" Sango giggled, pointing behind Jade. The brown-haired woman slowly turned her head, peering out over her shoulder. Naraku was now sitting in his car with the window down, music blaring as he dramatically danced and sang the lyrics while occasionally pointing at Jade.

"Nope. Can't say that I do." Jade responded evenly, feeling a smile jerking its way onto her lips. She hadn't wanted to punch herself for a long time, but this moment was invoking a strong reflex burn.

"He's definitely channeling his inner-Jade right now." Sango stated while shaking her head.

"What?" Jade snapped quickly.

"Well, you dance and sing like that, too," Sango pointed out with a shrug.

"Bullshit. I'm better at it than he is."

"Are you sure you don't know him?"

"Yep."

"I know him a little bit." Sango admitted, wondering if Jade was embarrassed of the man. She couldn't imagine why, though, seeing as Jade did equally embarrassing things.

"You do?" Jade questioned doubtfully.

"Mhm. I've never talked to him, but I see him at the gym. He's, uh, he's," Sango paused, glancing up at the interior of her car as she tried to think of the word.

"Obnoxious?" Jade suggested, watching as Naraku held his fingers over his lips in a V-shape, flicking his tongue between them teasingly.

"No. Fit. He's very fit. He has a nice butt, too." She chirped playfully.

"You know, I don't really care about his butt. Or his anything. I don't know him, remember?" Jade grumbled as she sat facing forward, her arms crossed tightly.

"Haha, alright, Jade." Sango chuckled as she backed out of her parking spot, waving to the black-haired man who returned the wave with his wide, wicked grin.

 **000000**

"Plaaaaaaaaaaaay my music, damn it!" Jade shouted at her car, pressing every button on her MP3 player and checking the auxiliary cord that connected it to her car. After a few minutes, she accepted defeat and placed her device down to drive back to the shop for her next delivery.

 _'I hope the next people tip.'_ Jade thought as she sped off down the road. She pulled her cord from the car and began skimming through the radio stations, grimacing at every song or angry preacher she landed on. Jade finally turned her speaker volume down all the way and decided that silence was better than having her ears assaulted. She turned onto a one-way street and began tapping her a beat on her steering wheel when a song surface in her head.

"Let it burn! Wanna let it burn, wanna let it burn, wanna, wanna let it burrrrrrn!" Jade sang ferociously when she realized the car in front of her was going nowhere near the speed limit. She realized the light had turned red and they would have made it had the car been going faster. As she came to a stop, she pretended her steering wheel was someone's neck as she rocked back and forth with her knuckles turning white. The slow car turned and Jade went straight to make her way back.

After being hit by every red light possible, Jade was sure that the universe was out to get her, but she kept telling herself to remain calm and that this next run would go smoothly. Or, maybe there wasn't another run at the moment and she could hear more stories about how Ginta failed at something that week. She turned onto the main road where the shop was located and inhaled sharply.

"What the," Jade whispered under her breath when she spotted the flashing lights surrounding the restaurant. She pulled into the empty lot beside the restaurant parking lot, noticing the smoke rising from the building. Jade closed her eyes and placed her forehead against her steering wheel.

"This didn't happen. They did not let this happen. I swear, if this happened," Jade murmured under her breath. She inhaled through her nose, holding the air in her lungs when she heard knocking on her window. Jade looked up and saw Koga, who waved to her tentatively. Jade opened her door while removing her seatbelt, standing up out of her car and sighing heavily.

"Are you alright?" Koga asked, putting a hand on Jade's shoulder.

"I'm just trying process this." Jade responded, massaging her temples.

"There was a fire."

"I figured that part out. How bad?"

"Uh, the fire itself didn't seem too bad, but the damage on the ovens," Koga trailed off when he saw Jade's expression harden.

"How long will we be out?" Jade asked while crossing her arms tightly.

"It's hard to say. At least a week." Koga swallowed hard, watching as Jade began slowly nodding her head. Then, a terrible grin pierced her face.

"That's great. That's wonderful."

"Jade, I asked Ginta and Hakkaku to plan out streams to help this hurt less,"

"That won't do it for me. I want a personal stream." Jade replied sharply, turning towards her friend.

"I'm trying to help all four of-"

"What about the other coworkers who don't have another means? What even happened? Did one of you forget something in the oven? Leave something hanging over it?"

"Why are you blaming us?"

"I'm not! I'm just asking questions! I have bills due next week! Business has been slow because it's summer! I was doing all I could to make ends meet nicely!"

"Oh really? I have bills due, too! And maybe this wasn't our fault!" Koga shouted back at her. He regretted it when he saw her start nodding once more.

"I was waiting for you to say something like that. Here is my retort before I get back into my car; I have been incredibly patient with you and you have been fucking me. I understand why you have been fucking me, but it's still fucking me."

"Jade,"

"I get fucked a lot and it's because I let it happen; both here and with my new job. I hoped that my friends here wouldn't take advantage of it." Jade explained, pulling cash from her pocket and handing it to Koga, who frowned.

"What's this?"

"That was my only delivery of the evening. No tip. Call me when the store's back up." Jade sat back into her car and turned it on, roaring the engine to drown out Koga's words. She had no idea if he was cursing her or pleading with her and at that point, she didn't care.

Upon her arrival home, Jade kicked her car door shut, cursing loudly when she realized she made a small dent in the door. She stumbled when her foot caught the curb. She tripped heading upstairs to her apartment. When she finally opened the door after the key slipped past the hole several times, she was met with a worried Kagome and Sango, both who jumped up from the couch.

"We just heard there was a fire! Are you alright?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I was on a run when it happened." Jade exhaled as she closed the door behind her. Her eyes locked with the hallway where her room waited for her.

"You almost sound disappointed." Sango pointed out.

"I do kind of wish I died in the fire. I'm going to change clothes." Jade waved a dismissive hand towards her roommates, both whom glanced at one another silently.

Jade closed her door behind herself and immediately began shedding her work clothes. She tossed them in the basket on the other side of her room before grabbing the pair of jeans that hung on the back of her chair. She stepped inside them, pulling them to her waist. They were so loose on her she didn't even need to bother with the button or zipper. Once she pulled a plain purple T-shirt on, she sat on her bed and continued massaging her head.

 _'I don't think a personal stream will quite cut it for me, either. Maybe two?'_ Jade's hand felt around her pocket for her phone, gritting her teeth and hissing out another curse when she realized she left it in her car. Jade swiped her laptop from her desk and opened it, signing onto Facebook and posting about a personal stream in less than an hour. The post immediately began receiving likes and comments, which meant it might be a productive stream after all.

"Jade?" Sango called out, knocking on her door lightly.

"You can come in," Jade replied as she looked up. The door opened and Sango leaned in with a small wave.

"Hey, are you alright?" Sango asked as she slid into the room and closed the door behind her.

"Yeah, I wasn't there,"

"No, no, I meant with bills. Money. If you need help, we can help. Kagome and I just talked about it a little bit and,"

"No, it's cool. I can hit the mark." Jade insisted. Sango's eyebrow arched as she crossed her arms.

"If we need to pick up a little bit, we can. I don't want you getting a third job at the strip club because of this."

"Pfft, I wouldn't work at the strip club,"

"I don't want you whoring yourself out, either. Or going back to drug dealing." Sango argued.

"I'm noooooooot! And I dealt drugs once! Once!" Jade whined, collapsing backwards onto her bed as she held her index finger up.

"I mean it, Jade!" Sango hissed playfully, opening the door and deciding to leave her friend alone to think about her offer.

"Fiiiiiiiine!" Jade relented. When she heard her door close, she moved her laptop onto the bed beside her and rolled onto her side. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

 _'If I become Naraku's lab assistant, he pays me, too.'_ She thought. Then, there was the issue of Naraku himself having control over her.

"Whatever. I can handle him." Jade grumbled, her hand searching her pockets for her phone once more.

"Fucking….damn it!" she hissed when she remembered, again, that she left it in her car.

 **000000**

Fingers tapped an impatient beat on a steering wheel. Lips pouted and were bit thoughtfully. A frantic tune was partially hummed and partially growled. Green eyes leered out at a building.

 _'Just get this over with.'_ Jade thought, her hand grabbing the door handle and pulling on it. Jade stepped out of her car and closed the door, locking her car as she began walking towards the building's main door. She glanced at the bottom apartment of the building and saw lights were on, so she knew he was home. Jade walked into the building and up to the door like she had a few times before. Except this time, she had no pizza to deliver.

"Alright. Do your worst." Jade whispered, knocking on the door loudly before pressing her hand against the peephole. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of footsteps as the approached the door from the other side.

"Hello, Jade." Naraku's deep voice called. Jade smiled, her lips stretched thin and sealed together as she slowly shook her head.

"How did you know?" she asked. Two loud clicks echoed through the building before the door was pulled open, Naraku's smirk appearing in the doorway. He held his arm against the frame, leaning his head against his arm.

"You reek of desperation….and burnt pizza." Naraku commented wryly.

"Ah, you watched the news."

"I do that."

"Well….can I come in?" Jade questioned with a shrug. Naraku's smirk turned into a smile as he stepped back and opened the door wider, motioning with his hand for her to enter. Jade realized she was walking into the portal to Hell, but she stepped forward, fearless and with slight annoyance.

 _'I can handle it.'_ She reminded herself.

"Tea?" he asked as he closed the door. Jade stepped out of her shoes and turned back to him with a nod. Naraku strode away and turned a corner into his kitchen. Jade looked around and realized she was heavily disappointed. She was almost expecting mutilated corpses of innocent animals hanging from his walls, but instead, his walls were a clean off-white with a few pieces of artwork hanging from them. His furniture was black. Everything looked well-dusted and smelled clean. A green cage with white bars caught her eye, though. It didn't belong with the matching black furniture and tables.

"You're kidding me," Jade whispered when she realized a plump gray guinea pig lurked beneath the plastic green igloo inside. Her hand covered her mouth to prevent a loud cackle and she turned to watch Naraku walk from the kitchen, holding a tray of tea and snacks in his hands.

"What?" he asked her. Jade's free hand pointed to the guinea pig and Naraku's expression fell into a slight pout.

 _'I knew I should have moved the little bastard into the other room.'_ Naraku thought with irritation.

"I thought you said you fed it to the snakes," Jade murmured through her hand. Naraku had walked to the coffee table in front of his couch, placing the tray down and plucking a carrot from the bowl that sat on the tray.

"I did. This is a different guinea pig." Naraku lied, his tone lazy and unconvincing.

"Mhm, sure. I knew you were weird, but damn,"

"Weird," Naraku repeated, walking to the guinea pig's cage. The gray critter shot out of its igloo and stood up against the cage bars, squeaking when it realized it was snack time.

"Oh, oh," Jade chirped, pointing at the carrot in Naraku's hand. He looked at her vacantly.

"What?" he asked.

"Can I," Jade's smile was wide as she pointed at the carrot. Naraku glanced down at the carrot in his hand before slowly handing it to her. Jade snorted as she stuck the carrot between the bars and began laughing when the guinea pig ripped the carrot from her fingers, swung around, and dove back into its igloo. Naraku had sat on his couch, pouring the tea into the two teacups he brought out. Jade joined him and crossed her legs beneath her body.

"Alright, so I was thinking,"

"I wrote a contract." Naraku interrupted, taking a small sip of tea to test the temperature.

"Oh," Jade said, looking down when she realized how dangerous that was. She was going to have to read the damned thing at least three times to make sure he wasn't screwing her over.

"Here, have fun." Naraku chirped, grabbing the printed contract from the end table behind him and handing it to her.

"Wow, Christian Grey."

"Do not slander me by comparing me to that weak piece of trash. I am worse than him." Naraku retorted arrogantly, flipping his hair behind his shoulder.

"Yes, Senpai." Jade responded with a sigh, pulling back when she saw Naraku choke on the tea he had just swallowed. He held a finger up with one hand, the other hand covering his mouth as he suffered through a coughing fit.

"Don't...Don't call me….that!" he spat between coughs.

"But Senpai, I love you and everything you do to meeeeeeee!" Jade replied as obnoxiously as she could, pulling a pen from her pocket.

"Read." Naraku ordered while still coughing.

Naraku's coughs had finally subsided. He was munching on a carrot, watching Jade's expressions as she read through the papers. Her expressions ranged from, "This doesn't sound so bad," to, "Fuck this motherfucker, I'm not doing any of this." Naraku knew some of those demands would never happen in a million years, which is why he placed them in there; a false sense of security made her more likely to agree to the things he really wanted more.

"Alright, no. I will not call you, "master." Forget it." Jade shot as she scribbled, "No" above the statement.

"Can you indulge me and say it sarcastically?" Naraku pushed.

"But Senpai,"

"Understood." Naraku cut her off bitterly as he glanced at his black TV screen. Jade snickered as she looked back down and continued reading. The room went mostly silent with the exception of a few squeaks from the furry hostage across the room and Naraku slowly munching on another carrot.

"Let me just get to the point….money," Jade finally said after what seemed like years of silence. Naraku leaned forward to grab his cup of tea.

"Yes, money. The thing that makes your world turn."

"How much?" Jade decided to ignore that last comment he made. It was true, though.

"It's difficult to say, truthfully. But, if you help me, I can return the favor." Naraku replied softly, finishing off his tea. Jade blinked slowly and withheld her expressions.

"No strings attached?"

"No strings attached."

"Actually, I'm going to record this on my phone,"

"There is no need. Until you help me with this particular problem, neither of us will see a cent."

"I'll bite. What problem?" Jade huffed.

"Bruce has my samples on a shipping loop. If you tell him that you have agreed to be my assistant, then he might feel inclined to finally give them to me, or I should say us. Once we have them, the project funds will drop, and we will have our money."

"How soon and what percent?" Jade asked quickly.

"The samples can be here within a day. The funds are sent electronically, so you can assume two to three days at the most." Naraku explained as he leaned forward to pour the remaining tea from the pot into the two cups.

"Percent," Jade repeated slowly, a smile creeping across her face. Naraku handed her a refreshed cup of tea, his smile mirroring hers.

"You seem to have one in mind. I'm a haggling man. Try me." He insisted.

"Twenty-five."

"Fifteen."

"Twenty-five or you will not see your samples from me."

"Fifteen or you will not receive your precious money. I assume bills are due soon, yes?"

"I have other ways and no shame. You are just my first stop. Twenty-five." Jade replied smugly.

"Twenty and I'll give you two days a week where you will not hear a word from me." Naraku countered as he held up two slender fingers.

"That doesn't mean anything if I'm physically around you."

"Fine. Twenty percent and two days a week where we don't see each other or communicate. Unless it's an emergency."

"Twenty-five." Jade shot rapidly. Naraku blinked and his eyebrows rose slightly.

"If I give you twenty-five percent, I will offer nothing else with it."

"Twenty-five." She insisted calmly. She wanted nothing else.

"Are you really going to surrender two days a week for five percent?" Naraku asked her skeptically.

"Are you really going to give me two days a week?" Jade asked back with twice the amount of skepticism.

"Fair enough. You win, my dear. Twenty-five percent."

"Oh, I didn't win shit. Don't play." Jade giggled, holding her cup of tea out to Naraku. He tapped his cup against hers and they downed the liquid together.

"Have you altered what you wanted?" Naraku asked, motioning to the contract in her lap. Jade scribbled, "25%," before signing the final page.

"I got what I came for. I'll talk to Bruce in the morning." Jade stated, looking at Naraku, who was staring back at her. His head was tilted, almost like he was studying her. His expression finally said, "not bad," and he shrugged as he nodded his head.

 _'Now you are mine.'_ Naraku grinned at her before silently offering her another carrot.

 **000000**

"So, now I work with two grad students-fuuuuuuuuck you, buddy!" Jade snarled when her opponent broke her combo and stole away all of the potential damage she could have dealt. Her fingers pushed her stick back, her werewolf blocking the jabs of her opponent's blade.

"Anyway, these two grad students, who I will refer to as Yin and Yang for reasons, goddamn it! This guy has broken every fucking combo! Fuck me! Fuck Yin and Yang! Fuck fires!" Jade shouted, reacting too late and suffering through a combo. When she saw an opening, she hit a button and broke her opponent's combo in retaliation.

"I'm going to bait him! I'm going to do it! Fuck this guy!" Jade tapped the buttons to begin a combo, but she left out an input on purpose. Her werewolf stalled and stopped swinging his claws. When her opponent exited his hit animation, she threw out a counter-breaker and he struck her at the same moment.

"Ooooooh yeah! Eat it!" Jade laughed through clenched teeth as she glanced over at the open chat window where her viewers begged her to continue her story.

"Yin and Yang, right! Uh, for reasons, and because these two guys, they're...they're two halves of the same asshole. So yeah, one throws a glass beaker at my face and the other, oh boy, the other," Jade's head shook as she began giggling at her own thoughts. Her wolf dealt the final blow and the match ended, showing the statistics of all the combos, damage percents, breakers, and anything else she needed to know to improve upon.

"I just sold my soul to him." Jade stated calmly as she stared at her chatroom, repeating that statement in her head over and over again. She saw people's responses of, "Close game," "Sold your soul to who?" and "Git rekt, Weedwolf's soul."

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! What did I do?" Jade screeched as she face-planted onto her desk. Her pathetic whimpers soon morphed into wild cackling as she sat up and stared into her camera, rocking back and forth.

"I'm so dumb! I'm so dumb, I'm so dumb, I'm so dumb!" Jade whined, her laughter taking over once more. She didn't know why she was laughing. She didn't even know why she was complaining now. Did the magnitude of the situation not hit her until now? Did she actually believe her own lie when she kept telling herself she could handle it?

"Hahaha! Hahahaha, ooooooh my face! My fucking face hurts!" Her hands were now softly rubbing her face, which was slightly moist from her tears. Jade leaned forward, her green eyes scanning the chatroom once more. She saw one person's reply and nodded immediately.

"You're right. I'm not Weedwolf anymore. I'm Insanity Wolf. But, I really needed the money, guys! Ahahaha, my main workplace caught on fire earlier!" Jade doubled over as another laughing fit took her.

"Ahaha, and now I have a senpai! Oh, kill me, please. Whoever I play on this next match, just wreck me." Jade begged as she tapped the button to search for a new online match. She cracked her neck and giggled a few more times, reminding herself to enjoy her last bits of laughter.

 _'I might not laugh again for long, long time.'_ She realized, still smiling broadly.


	9. Secrets

**Secrets**

 **AN - Alright, so I actually died this time, but it's all good. I was resurrected with blood-magic. I apologize for how long it took to update.**

Naraku stood with one hand on his hip and the other stroking his chin. Surrounding him on the floor were several printed articles which had material aimed at his thesis. He had read them countless times already, but he figured Jade needed to read some of them if she was going to be his assistant. However, he could not decide which ones were more important.

"She can start with you," he murmured as he bent over to pick up the stapled papers. He tossed the article on the couch and continued his judgment of the remaining articles on the floor. His eyes shifted to the side when he saw something dart across the room just out of his peripherals. Naraku stepped over the circle of papers and walked to the other side of the couch, stopping and tilting his head when he recognized his gray guinea pig sitting patiently on the floor.

"How the hell," Naraku choked out his words, turning to look at the now-empty cage. The side door was open, but the cage was sitting on a table, meaning the guinea pig took a dive. The man looked back at the escapee guinea pig, which immediately took off running again. Naraku followed it quickly, prepared to scoop the pig up. However, the guinea pig was aware of this game and ran under Naraku's dining table, darting in between the table and chair legs while squeaking. Naraku dropped to his knees, weaved his body in between the legs, and tried grabbing the dodging furball with a single hand, but it slipped through his fingers like silk.

"Alright, look," Naraku began, but stopped when he realized he was actually going to reason with a guinea pig. He exhaled loudly and glared at the pig, which was sitting patiently, as if to say, "I'm listening."

"You're not cute. Come here." Naraku ordered as he snapped his fingers. Nine times out of ten, the guinea pig would follow the "sit" and "come" commands. Naraku groaned when the guinea pig chose that one out of ten times to not listen. To add injury to insult, the guinea pig dodged between the chair legs, causing Naraku to wrap his limbs around the legs and then strike his head under the table when he tried to abort the ridiculous table-weaving mission. The pig then ran towards the papers Naraku had organized on the floor. The tall man untangled himself from his table and chair legs and marched over to the guinea pig, which was now nibbling on an article. Naraku tried to scoop it with both hands, but the critter leaped over his hands and ran to another pile of papers, nibbling and munching even faster than before.

' _You little bastard!'_ Naraku wanted to scream. He tried diving forward, cursing when the pig slipped away again, running between his legs and finding yet another pile to chew on. Naraku's strands of long black hair swung through the air like whips as he twisted his body and dove backwards, finally scooping the pig into his hands and raising it up in the air as he landed on his back.

"Heh, you forget that I'm smarter." Naraku said victoriously, watching the furry hostage wiggle and squeal defiantly in his grasp. He chuckled lightly before sitting up and placing the pig against his chest. Instantly, it crawled up to his shoulder and spun around, it's back legs hanging down his back and its front paws gripping his shirt. Naraku rolled his eyes, his hand quickly stroking the guinea pig's head. A purr erupted loudly and the guinea pig actually vibrated.

"What...was that?" Naraku asked slowly, feeling the horrified expression carve into his face. He reached up and stroked the guinea pig once more. Again, the critter purred loudly, it's body vibrating with the noise. Naraku dropped his hand and looked away, feeling a warmth fill his cheeks. He didn't even want to think about the word, "cute."

Naraku finished organizing the articles he wanted Jade to read. Once he had them gathered in a single stack, he held the stack up to his shoulder, allowing the guinea pig to nibble on the ends of the papers. It kept the pig happy and seemingly convinced it to not jump from his shoulder and take off again, so Naraku was more than willing to let it nibble. Plus, that would alert Jade that the pig was still very much alive. She had been asking Naraku about the critter ever since she learned of its existence three days prior.

"I've entertained the idea of just giving you to her, but then she might think that I care about you. Or her. Or it'll be interpreted as a kindness. So, you will remain here with me and I will find you a new cage that you cannot easily escape from." he told the gray pig, who was chirping, telling his own story in reply.

After putting the escaped prisoner pig back into its cage, Naraku sat on his couch first, but then decided to stretch out and think of what to do next. Naraku's eyes closed momentarily, his mind drifting into a haze as one leg and one arm hung off the side of the couch. He remembered wanting to do something, but he couldn't quite remember what it was he wanted to do. Maybe he just wanted to do something in general, but had no ideas in mind? A buzzing sound immediately stirred him from his near-slumber. He sat up quickly, hand digging into his pocket for his phone.

' **Your samples arrived today. I have them in my office, but I am not on campus now. I can give them to you tomorrow morning if you want them. Cheers - Bruce'**

Naraku read the email over and over again, pacing the floor of his living room. His samples were finally within his grasp, but they were also just out of his reach!

"Of course Bruce would leave campus when he physically has my samples locked in his office." Naraku spat, glancing over at the guinea pig. It was sitting and staring at him. Maybe it really did listen to him. Naraku stopped pacing when he heard a loud thump above him and an eruption of laughter. He glanced at his watch and exhaled with irritation.

"It's party time. How could I forget?" he grumbled. He collapsed onto his couch once more. This time, however, his eyes did not close. His fingers tapped his stomach. His leg shook impatiently. Naraku had waited months to begin his research and climb the ranks in the scientific community. He could wait no longer.

Naraku pulled on black pants and a black sweatshirt and walked out of his apartment. The loud chatter and thundering music from the apartment above his placed Naraku in a very particular mood. The email from Bruce alerting him that his thesis samples were now sitting on Bruce's desk in Bruce's office without supervision was all too enticing for Naraku to remain home any longer. His car could have been flying with how elated Naraku felt.

' _No one will argue with me once I present my research for these samples.'_ Naraku thought, impatiently tapping the steering wheel as he waited for the red light to turn green. When it did, he sped away, certain that he could afford to speed a little now that it was dark and traffic was light.

The usual twenty-minute drive to campus took him ten and instead of parking in the lot behind the building, he chose an empty lot where he was certain there were no cameras. He tied his long, wavy hair into a single ponytail and stuffed the tendrils inside his sweatshirt before pulling the hood up over his head. Naraku kept his head down while walking to the building and ran the layout of the offices through his head. Bruce's office was the third door on the right on the main floor when entering from the East. Naraku turned and decided that would be his path, but stopped when something caught his eye.

"I don't believe it," Naraku whispered to himself, a wide grin stretching onto his lips. He counted the sets of windows twice to make entirely sure that the one window left open was the window of Bruce's office. Naraku stepped back and prepared to leap over the ten-foot gap, which held various flowers and rocks used to give the building an, "atmosphere," and to give windows a harder access point. But, before Naraku could sprint forward, his own gut seemed to scream, "Wait!" And so he did. Naraku ran the situation through his head again.

' _Maybe the open window is too good to be true,'_ he thought. Why would Bruce tell him his samples had arrived and then make it a point to also inform Naraku that he was not on campus and that he would have to wait? Naraku was a patient man, but he had waited for his samples long enough.

"Fuck it." Naraku grumbled before sprinting forward and leaping over the pit of flowers and landing on the concrete ledge of the building. His hands grasped the open window powerfully to keep his momentum from causing him to topple backwards. Naraku let a breath of excitement escape his lungs before climbing into the office. Naraku took the giant box sitting on the desk and checked the addresses. He saw they addressed the box to his name.

' _My box.'_ Naraku mouthed silently. He turned around to slide the box out onto the windowsill. He stepped back out onto the ledge and tossed the box to the other side. His samples were not breakable, but his arms and legs were. Naraku walked down to where the ledge met the brick wall of the building and sped up. Naraku jumped and kicked himself off the wall and twisted his body mid-air, landing on the front half of his feet on the ledge of the other side. He threw his arms out to balance his body before regaining control and stepping down. Naraku snatched up his box and chuckled before whistling a little tune as he trekked back to his car.

He was so excited that his neighbors' loud music didn't even bother him when he returned home. Naraku sat down on his couch and pulled out his pocket knife, flicking the blade out and cutting the tape holding the flaps down. One by one, Naraku pulled out the plastic storage bags holding the smaller plastic bags of dirt samples within them. They all had a series of numbers written on them, which acted as their individual labels. When he emptied the box, he stopped all movement when something caught his eye. At the very bottom of the box was a small lump. It looked like a small deformity of the cardboard at first, but when Naraku looked closer, he could see that there was brown tape covering something.

"Did they damage the box and attempt to fix it?" Naraku asked himself, cutting away at the tape with his knife. He received his answer when he pulled up the tape. Attached to the bottom, folded up into a small square, was a piece of paper. Naraku blinked, gently unfolding the paper and brushing the box onto the couch beside him. He flinched when something fell onto his lap.

"What is this?" he whispered, pinching the purple substance between his thumb and index finger. He held it up, frowning. It looked like a broken piece of jewelry. Naraku held the paper up at eye level in his other hand and realized there was a message written on it….in Japanese.

' _ **An additional sample for your research. It is not quartz. It is not zircon. It is not diamond. It's harder than all of those. It was found in the center of the area where your samples were taken. Be careful who you tell about it.'**_

"It can scratch diamond?" That piqued Naraku's interest. Diamond was unscratchable, except by another, harder diamond. He placed the paper down and inspected the fragmented gem closer. It was somewhat translucent, but what interested Naraku the most was the purple color it held. Many minerals that occurred naturally did not look half as brilliant as this particular...he wasn't even sure what to call it. The secret note said nothing about what it was.

"Hm," he huffed, leaning back and staring up at his ceiling. His fingers still pinched the purple fragment tightly.

' _I just won't tell anyone about it. Not Bruce, definitely not Sesshomaru,'_ he decided. ' _Not even Jade.'_

 **000000**

Sesshomaru's pen quickly scratched numbers onto the paper. He was solving a few calculations to tell him how much of each chemical to mix with one another. His plan was to prepare for his thesis samples, which were to arrive soon, but for the past few days, every time he would go to use the needed beakers, Naraku would swoop in and take them. He would bring them back hours later, completely unused. Sesshomaru had adopted Jade's tactic of just allowing it to happen and acting like it wasn't bothering him, but his face or his eyes must have betrayed him, because Naraku knew it was bothering him. Sesshomaru inhaled through his nose deeply and exhaled. He heard Jade's voice as the door shook from being quickly unlocked and pushed open and looked over to watch the spectacle.

"Are you ready for some science, slave?" Naraku asked Jade with feigned excitement, marching past her and snapping his fingers in her face.

"Yes, slave-driver Naraku." Jade answered evenly, as if discussing the weather. Sesshomaru saw Naraku's eyebrows furrow slightly.

"Not even the slightest bit of annoyance?" Naraku urged, pinching a small space between his thumb and index finger.

"You're openly begging for it now? How the mighty have fallen." Jade responded with a sigh, but even Sesshomaru could feel the smile wanting to tear through her lips from across the room. Or maybe that was his own?

"Fine, fine. I was lying, anyway. You don't get to do actual science today. You get to do pre-science." Naraku held up the binder he had tucked under his arm. "You need to read these thoroughly. Highlight, take notes, ask questions; do whatever it is you do when studying for an exam."

"Get high?"

"If that helps you absorb the knowledge from these papers better, by all means," he responded, placing the binder down on the table in front of Jade. That seemed to drag Jade down from her usual expression of, "Meh," to, "I'd rather get ran over." It was enough to please Naraku, apparently. He chuckled deeply while planting his hand on her head and patting it a couple of times before walking out of the room. When the door closed, Sesshomaru stood up from his temporary desk.

"You're quite the player." Sesshomaru said, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"No idea what you're talking about." Jade replied dismissively, shaking her head slightly. "He and I- we're not like that,"

"I'm not talking about that. I know Naraku well enough. You are stringing him along, however, and it's rather amusing."

"You guys give me way too much credit where Naraku is concerned. It's not that hard to just let him do whatever."

"You guys?"

"Bruce, you," Jade listed off, holding two fingers up.

"You can't honestly tell me he doesn't bother you." Sesshomaru pushed on. Jade shrugged before scratching her cheek. The cut was mostly healed, but part of the scab still itched from time to time...usually when she spoke to Sesshomaru.

"I mean, yeah, he's an ass, but I don't know. I guess I'm kind of used to it."

"You're used to him treating you as an object of amusement?" Sesshomaru repeated slowly, arching an eyebrow.

"He's upfront about it, at least. Honesty is a positive trait." Jade remarked as she sat on the stool nearest to her and opened the black binder. Sesshomaru seemed to have received whatever answer he wanted from her because he left the room quietly.

' _Why does he even care?'_ Jade wondered with irritation. She could understand Bruce's questioning of why she puts up with Naraku's antics, but who was Sesshomaru to question anything about her? She grumbled curses as she scratched the scab on her cheek even harsher than before. When Jade could finally think straight, she looked directly at the first page of the first article Naraku wanted her to read. Her gaze strayed to the corners, which looked to be torn off, but when she leaned closer, she could see tiny teeth impressions. Jade snickered and wondered if Naraku let the guinea pig chew it on purpose as some sort of slight towards her.

"Where did he even go?" Jade asked herself quietly. It wasn't like Naraku to let her off so easily, even if she did give him some kind of reaction. She closed the binder and walked out of the lab to find out what was so much more important than being irritating to a lab slave.

Naraku twisted his wrist to glance at his watch before scribbling the time onto a piece of paper held by a clipboard. He added on the date and murmured, "Science, bitch," before slamming the clipboard down on the sidewalk out of his way.

' _If this doesn't work, I'm not quite sure where to go from here.'_ Naraku realized with a smile, slipping the heavy gloves over his hands. He pressed one hand to his chest, the anxiety of uncertainty scratching against his torso. Naraku closed his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose, holding the air for a second before exhaling through his mouth. He bent over and grabbed a metallic mask with tinted lenses, pulling it over his head while grumbling curses when he realized his thick hair was not going to play nicely with the straps.

"That's what I get for being stylistic, I suppose." he commented in a low voice after finally adjusting the mask over his face and hair comfortably. He grabbed the blowtorch from the hook of his jerry-rigged tripod setup to hold the little jewel in a refractory bowl to be heated until it, hopefully, melted. Naraku didn't want to think about not being able to melt it within reasonable means. Not now. He twisted the valve to release the gas and watched as the bluish-white flame erupted from the tip of the torch.

' _What if I aim it directly at the fragment and not the bowl?'_ Naraku wondered, immediately aiming the flame away from the bowl and directly at the fragment of the unknown substance in the bowl. Within a few minutes, he started rocking his head side-to-side with a beat only he could hear.

"Do I want to know?" a voice droned with a slight whine. Naraku barely heard it over the loud hum of the blowtorch, but he released the trigger and turned his head, lifting the mask from his face and greeting Bruce with a cheeky smile.

"Drugs, Bruce. Drugs." Naraku replied.

"I should call the police. I really, really should."

"For?"

"Breaking into my office, operating dangerous equipment on a public walkway, I doubt your bloodstream is clear of drugs, I can go on,"

"Please do. I love hearing about myself." Naraku stifled a yawn.

"Prick. You're lucky I find your research to be incredibly important. Now, where is Jade? I thought she was your assistant slave or whatever you called her."

"Inside doing bitch-work."

"She's too smart to be used so uselessly. I hope she leaves just to spite you." Bruce griped as he walked away towards the commons area where the restaurants on campus resided.

"She won't." Naraku sighed, pulling his mask back down over his face and continuing the heated onslaught of the strange jewel. Every two minutes or so, he would poke the jewel with a metallic file to see if the surface of the jewel would give away even slightly. When it didn't, Naraku blasted it with more fire, holding the tip of the nozzle as close to the fragment as he could. He almost wished he could melt it with the amount of frustration that was building within him at the moment.

"You piece of," Naraku cut off, poking the fragment harder, wondering if he could break even a sliver off, but it still would not give. He had tried breaking it with several hammers the previous day and even took it to the gym with him earlier that morning to crush it with the weights. It seemed this gem, whatever it was, was indestructible.

' _If it won't break or melt, can it even be dissolved?'_ An irritated sigh escaped Naraku's lungs.

"Soooooo...what's this about?" Jade inquired as she approached her lab boss and waved her hand at his set-up. Naraku glanced at her before shaking his head.

"This is a side project. Are you finished with the articles?" Naraku asked her in return, turning the gem over again. Not even a tiny scratch or deformity.

"Pfft, no."

"I see that. Well, I suppose I could have you grab lunch for me."

"I'll eat it."

"Fine." Naraku pulled the mask off his head entirely and huffed as he stared at the jewel. His eyes shifted to the side when Jade leaned forward to look at it.

"Drugs?" she asked with a grin.

"Yes. Fetch me lunch and don't eat it." Naraku moved in front of her to break her eye contact with the jewel. Jade leaned back and rolled her eyes.

"Give me money for your lunch and I won't eat it." Jade insisted, stretching out her hand and twitching her fingers. Naraku pulled a glove off and reached into his back pocket. He grabbed a bill and handed it to her.

"My usual salad. No szechuan peppers this time, dear." Naraku cooed with a smile, but Jade could almost physically taste the bitterness hiding behind his sweet tone. Jade plucked the money from his fingers and backed away while giggling.

"That wasn't me, by the way. I wasn't the only one in the room with your salad that time." Jade reminded him before turning around and marching away, whistling a little tune to her pace. Naraku exhaled and pursed his lips. The only other person in the room that time was Bruce. Naraku snorted and picked up his clipboard, scribbling down a few notes and deciding to call it a day from trying to break the jewel.

Naraku began taking apart his equipment and realized he was gritting his teeth. If he couldn't break the gem, or melt it, would dissolving it even work? Or did it need a longer time in heat? He placed the bowl holding the jewel on the ground and then removed his gloves. He pulled his phone from his pocket and pulled up his contacts list. He locked his phone when he saw Jade walking around the side of the building with a styrofoam container in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

"I only asked for a salad." Naraku pointed out once she was close enough to hear him .

"I knew you'd say that. I bought it with my money." Jade giggled and handed him the bottle anyway. She reached into her pocket and grabbed his change and held it out to him, but Naraku stared her down before wiggling the salad and water bottle with both hands, indicating he could not take it. Jade placed the money on top of the salad container and snickered as Naraku looked to the side to let the moment of irritation slip away.

"We need to speak about this situation of me teaching a lab and you assisting." Naraku announced as he walked towards a nearby bench.

"Okay." Jade replied, following him and sitting beside him. Naraku pocketed his change and opened his salad, stabbing at the lettuce and taking a bite.

"I have a general lesson plan, so I'll email it to you. I do need you to email your class schedule to me, though."

"Whyyyyyyy?" Jade asked, feeling her cheeks flush with cold blood. She wasn't sure how comfortable she was with Naraku knowing her schedule for anything other than working with him. Naraku looked at her and pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"You will be helping me grade. I need to know when you're free."

"I can just tell you."

"I also just need to know in general since you will be working for me. I'm sure you gave your boss at your other job your class schedule."

"I can just tell you." she repeated. Naraku arched an eyebrow, his eyes darting to his salad. He then lifted the container to her.

"Tomato?" he offered.

"A tomato for my class schedule?"

"I'll give you a dollar for the water, too."

"Mm, you're not making this easy on me," Jade stated dryly. Naraku lowered his salad and shrugged, taking another bite.

"If I wanted to stalk you, I would have."

"How do I know you haven't?" Jade asked jokingly, but her eyes widened when she saw him smile.

"I'll find out one way or another. Why play when you've already lost?" Naraku replied. Jade exhaled slowly. She bit her lips closed when he offered her the salad again, one slice of tomato remaining in the mix. Jade plucked it from the container and dropped it in her mouth, standing up slowly. She heard a buzz and figured it was Naraku's phone.

"I'll send it to you, Senpai. Anything else?"

"The money I owe you," Naraku stated after unlocking his phone and reading the bank message he received. Jade turned to him and frowned.

"Yeah?"

"Come to my apartment tonight. I'll have it ready for you."


	10. Buffering

**Buffering**

 **A/N - I'm a ghost.**

Naraku stood at his stove, waiting for the tea to finish boiling. He rolled his eyes when heard the loud clinking of coins being shifted around. Jade had backed out of going to work to clean and showed up early for her payment. So, he gave it to her and now she was counting it down to every last quarter. Naraku walked to the entrance of the kitchen, leaning out to see Jade carefully aligning tall stacks of said quarters on his coffee table.

"You're going to count it all?" Naraku asked skeptically.

"Yup." Jade replied, her hands working quickly.

"I'm not the type to short someone when I owe them." Naraku said, shooting her a cheeky smile when she looked at him with a tired expression. She remained silent and returned to her counting. Naraku shrugged and walked back to the stove. He slid his hands into his pockets, his fingers on his right hand brushing against the shard of his mystery mineral. A silent laughter pushed on his chest when he felt the single missing quarter from Jade's money in his left pocket.

"How the fuck did the bank let you get away with this?" Jade asked with a whine.

"Well, they didn't let me do all quarters. I had a chunk of it put into single dollar bills."

"Did they give them to you like this or did you unwrap them from their little paper wraps? Did you suck their dicks really good, at least?"

"I unwrapped them and dumped them in the box myself." he answered, ignoring the last question.

"Yeah, I see that." Jade shot quickly, making Naraku snort to himself.

The tea only took a few more minutes, and Naraku poured Jade and himself a cup each. He placed the cups on a tray, along with some sliced apples and carrots. He froze for a moment, trying to remember if Jade used sweetener in her tea or not. He grabbed a few packets and a spoon just in case before lifting the tray and carrying it into his living room. Naraku placed the tray on the table and offered Jade a cup. She took it and held the cup to her lips, pausing for a moment.

"What did you do to it?" she asked him.

"Nothing, although, I still wouldn't drink it just yet. It's hot."

"Mm," Jade agreed after her lip touched the very surface of the tea. She placed the cup on the table and returned to counting her money. Naraku noticed she had reached the dollar bills and was now scooping them into a few stacks. He bit into a slice of apple, watching as her fingers smoothly slid the bills from her left hand to her right. She was very quick, placing the bills in smaller stacks on the cushion beside her.

"I know you handle money a lot, but you're faster than most bank tellers I've seen." Naraku admitted. Jade glanced at him, continuing to count her stack.

"When you deliver, you want to make it quick. Plus, some people try to pay less than what their food costs."

"Ah," Naraku bit into another slice of apple, looking over at the guinea pig chewing on his cage. He grabbed another slice of apple as he stood up and walked over, slipping it through the bars. The gray pig snatched the slice from his fingers and ran back into his plastic igloo.

"Have you named him yet?"

"No."

"You're so weird." Jade sighed, collecting her bills back into a single pile. She placed the pile in the box and then began counting the towers of quarters, typing numbers into her phone's calculator.

"You've no idea." Naraku said, walking back to the couch and sitting down slowly. He saw Jade frown and he grabbed another apple slice. Just as he was about to eat it, Jade held her hand out to him and snapped her fingers. Naraku blinked, but he placed the slice in her palm gently.

"You mother- I want my quarter! Did you think I wouldn't notice?" Jade stated loudly, but she was smiling. Naraku wasn't sure if she was angry or not, but he pulled the quarter from his pocket and offered it to her with a smirk. Jade reached for it, but he pulled it away, holding a finger up.

"I do believe I asked you for something earlier," Naraku reminded her, but a feeling in his gut told him she hadn't forgotten at all and that she was banking on him to forget instead. Jade stared at him blankly for a few moments, and Naraku almost relented, but she smiled again, holding back her laughter as she reached into her pocket.

"Here, I even fixed it up for you so you would know my class schedule and work schedule." she said, finally placing the slice of apple he gave her in her mouth. She pulled a folded paper out of her pocket with her other hand, handing it to him. Naraku took it and rested the quarter on top of his thumb, flicking it in the air. Jade caught the quarter and reunited it with its brethren on his table. She took her cup of tea and opened a packet of sweetener, sighing heavily as she stirred.

"Is the money inadequate?" Naraku asked, slowly unfolding the paper.

"Money is money. I'm just tired after counting two-thousand quarters and five-hundred dollars because my employer is a dick." Jade responded as she took a sip of tea. Naraku chuckled and shrugged.

"That should pay your rent once or twice, so you should be happy."

"Once or twice? Bruh, that's about five months, give or take other bills." Jade snickered. Naraku frowned and tilted his head.

"Five? Do you live in a cardboard box with a beautiful view?" Naraku asked skeptically, causing Jade to almost spit her tea out. She covered her mouth and shook her head a few times. His tone must have really tickled her.

"Nah, roommates," she said, wiping away a tear.

"Ah." Naraku looked down at her schedule. "Roommates aren't for me."

"No shit? Although, I think you and Sesshomaru would get along fiiiiiiiiiiiiine." Jade said sarcastically. She giggled tauntingly when Naraku's eyes locked on hers.

"I'll have to light some sage to ward off the bitterness and unfounded arrogance that his name brings along with it." Naraku sighed, looking back down at the schedule.

"Where will you stay until the sage wears off?" Jade asked in a serious tone. She waited for Naraku to look up at her again before smiling widely. He knew she was getting back at him for the quarter ordeal, but it still burned.

"My arrogance is founded and I am not bitter." Naraku corrected calmly. He could tell from the way her eyebrows twitched that she did not believe him and was ready to fire off another comeback.

"Ooooookay." Jade took another sip of tea and shook her head slightly.

"You do realize you're going to be very busy, yes?" Naraku asked after finally having enough silence to study her schedule.

"Mhm." Jade nodded.

"Your plan, if I'm reading this correctly, is to not have a life."

"Oh, I'll have one. Weekends, bro."

"Some of your weekends will belong to me." Naraku replied, reading the names of her classes. "You're taking Organic Chem with Bruce?"

"Orgasmic Chem? Yeah, he told me I had to."

"Oh, an art class?" Naraku perked up. "You do know this one has nude models, correct?"

"Yeah? I'm not twelve." Jade held a hand up expressing her irritation.

"Calm down. I'm only,"

"You're probing me and I don't like it. If you want to know something, ask me directly." Jade insisted, leaning forward and placing her empty cup on the table.

"No." Naraku answered. "There is more tea in the kitchen."

"Thanks." Jade remained sitting, though.

"I assume your research hours and your TA position also count as credit hours?"

"Yep. Bruce worked some of his advisor voodoo magic. So, two classes and two things that count as credit hours. I'll be working, but not as hard as you think."

"Indeed." Naraku said, holding back a smile. She had no idea how hard she was going to be working with him. Naraku glanced down at his pocket, his thoughts returning to the purple gem. He had already decided not to tell Jade about it, but at the same time, she was his assistant. She might need to know in case she came across something strange or to keep her eyes open for him. However, the people funding him insisted he be careful who to tell.

"Is that it?" Jade asked, jerking Naraku from his thoughts. He looked up and blinked.

"I suppose."

"Good. I need to deposit this ridiculous-ass money into my bank now. They probably already think I'm a stripper with the tips I bring in." Jade said dryly, scooting forward and scooping the towers of quarters back into the box. Naraku began chuckling when he realized her bank was going to have to count all of the quarters and dollars, too. Jade flipped him off, but she was also laughing.

' _She handled this far better than I wanted her to. Oh well.'_ Naraku exhaled and looked away. Suddenly, another thought hit him and he stood up quickly.

"Hold on," Naraku told her, walking away towards his office.

"Okay," Jade replied. Naraku opened a drawer in his desk, pulling out a plastic bag holding a carefully rolled joint. He walked back into the living room and Jade had finished packing up her change, cursing him under her breath.

"Here," Naraku held the bag out to her. Jade frowned and pulled her hand back.

"What is that?" Jade asked, her tone reminding Naraku of a disappointed parent.

"What do you mean, "What is that?" You know what it is. Take it. My treat." Naraku insisted, shaking the bag gently. Jade crossed her arms for a moment, tilting her head to the side. She slowly tilted her head to the other side, reaching up with a hand to nervously scratch under her chin.

"I don't know. I was told not to take drugs from strangers." Jade replied with a smirk. Naraku mirrored her smirk with his own.

"You want it."

"Yeah, what's the catch?" Jade asked quickly, her hands now resting on her hips.

"Jade, you wound me. It's a gift." Naraku lied. He figured if she liked his weed enough, she would buy off him, and return portions of money to him. Although, Jade had definitely picked up on something, because she still looked reluctant and uncomfortable.

"No. I don't trust you. Your tea didn't hit me, but your weed," Jade's sentence trailed off, but Naraku knew what she was implying.

"What can I do to convince you?" Naraku countered, lowering his arm to his side. Jade bit her lips together and shook her head.

"You really want me to smoke that? I find that suspicious."

"I'll smoke it with you. I'll even take the first hit." Naraku offered. Jade looked away while laughing, but she hadn't said, "No." She looked down at the floor, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

"Fine. But, I need to go to the bank first and then go hang out with my roommates for a bit. I can come back later. Midnight?" Jade suggested. Naraku nodded.

"I'll be waiting."

 _ **000000**_

Naraku slowly paced the floor behind his couch, dragging his finger up the screen of his phone. He had many contacts, most of which were clients or people important to his education, and a couple of groups of coworkers from previous jobs, but none of them had an answer for his mineral dilemma, if he could even call it a mineral.

' _If these people were smart, they would have sent this to a mineralogist instead of me.'_ Naraku thought bitterly, which made him stop pacing immediately. Of course they would have sent it to a mineralogist. They probably sent it to an array of Geology-related professionals. He found himself staring at the purple mystery, which sat a little box on the coffee table in front of his couch.

"Unless there are more pieces and they sent a piece to everyone they knew," Naraku figured that was the most plausible case, seeing as they had little information to give to him to start with. It still left one burning question in his mind; why him? Of all professionals, researchers, professors; him? The graduate student of a well-known, but not insanely popular, Chemistry professor and researcher? And why insist to be careful who to tell, which included Bruce? Naraku despised Bruce, but the man was knowledgeable and if he didn't have an answer, he had ways of finding a good path to an answer.

' _Absolutely ridiculous. This is a waste of my time and resources.'_ Naraku locked his phone, only to click the button again to check the time. It was close to midnight, which meant Jade would arrive soon.

Naraku placed his papers in a neat pile on the table and moved the mystery mineral from his coffee table to the top drawer of his desk in his office room. But, he didn't close the drawer. When he tried, he couldn't find it in himself to push it shut. What if Jade got curious and roamed his apartment if he used the bathroom or fell asleep? Naraku stuffed the mineral shard in his pocket and promptly left his office, closing the door behind him. Just then, a soft knock sounded from his living room. Naraku frowned, as he was sure the sound wasn't from his front door. It sounded as if something had tapped on glass.

"What are you...ugh." Naraku grumbled when he saw Jade standing at the glass door of his patio. He walked over and unlocked the door, sliding it open to let her in. "I have a door, a wooden one, that is used for letting people in and out of my apartment."

"I didn't feel like walking inside just to be let inside again. What's the big deal?" Jade argued as she slipped past him.

"We're about to get high and you decide to be completely conspicuous about entering my apartment."

"Says the dude who waved a joint at me like it was a victory flag,"

"Whatever. So, we can,"

"No. You're coming with me." Jade interrupted, crossing her arms. Naraku frowned, crossing his own arms.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"I have a good place to smoke where no one will bother us. I don't want your guinea pig to get high, too."

"It has been a while since I've smoked elsewhere." Naraku lightly stroked his chin, which was now smooth after he shaved earlier. He heard Jade giggling and looked down at her. "What?"

"I just don't see you smoking weed. You come off as a cocaine man."

"I have to have a gateway drug first." he replied sarcastically, turning around to find his shoes and keys.

Jade left via his porch again and Naraku decided to leave his apartment like a normal person. When they reached her car, Naraku sat in the passenger seat, adjusting it back to give his legs more room.

' _Who sits here and how short are they?'_ Naraku wondered, a part of him thinking the seat should remain adjusted for him permanently. He jiggled the handle, testing the strength of it. If it was easy to break, he figured he could do it now.

"Seatbelt, please." Jade said, clicking her own into place. Naraku let go of the handle and decided to break it later. He pulled the seatbelt across his body and clicked it into place quietly. Next, Naraku rolled the window down, and then rolled it back up. He did it once more, glancing at Jade out of his peripherals. Either she hadn't noticed or she was ignoring him, so he did it again, and again, and again.

"Do you want the AC on? Is that what that means?" Jade asked calmly.

"Yes, it's quite humid and hot." Naraku said.

"Use your big boy words." she bit back, pushing the button to activate her car's AC.

"Why would I do that when you just seem to know what I want?"

"That's true. I should probably stop that." Jade said.

"I'm actually excited about this. I haven't hotboxed since high school." Naraku admitted, glancing at Jade with a smile. He quickly turned away, though, asking himself why he did that, and if she had noticed.

"How long ago was that? Twenty years?"

"Ha. Funny. I'm not much older than you."

"That's what an old person would say."

"No, back in my day," Naraku began, hearing her giggle with agreement.

Naraku decided to pay attention to the roads Jade took to her special smoke spot. If it was as secretive as she claimed, he might use it himself. Part of him was still slightly uncomfortable smoking outside of his apartment. If a cop happened to catch him, he could kiss his degree and future careers goodbye. Jade seemed confident, though, which put him at ease. Naraku gritted his teeth. He would never admit that out loud or ever again. He noticed Jade turn onto one of the main roads, heading out of the city.

"I assume your spot is in the middle of nowhere?" Naraku asked aloud.

"You'll see. Chill." Jade said.

"I am completely chill."

"You're stiff as a board. We'll be fine."

"Hm." Naraku lowered his arms, annoyed that she had noticed his uneasiness.

The drive was just under twenty minutes and they had reached a road that didn't have any intersecting roads for what seemed like miles. A lot of trees and bushes followed the road, but there were points of wide, open fields, too. Naraku noticed Jade slowing down and looking carefully, as if not one-hundred percent sure where it was. She slowly came to a stop and Naraku looked at her doubtfully.

"Jade, we're in the middle of the road." Naraku pointed out. Jade shifted her car into reverse, turning to look Naraku directly in the eyes.

"Chill." Jade said, turning her wheel to the left, and rolling her car backwards off the road. Naraku wanted to look away, but he kept his gaze locked with Jade's. She was screwing with him. A few branches and leaves brushed against the car, but otherwise, it was a nice little nook almost completely level with the road; big enough for her car and it sat back far enough from the road to not draw attention.

"Cute." Naraku finally said when Jade shifted her car to park. She released her seatbelt and shook her head.

"Still not done," she said, opening her door and stepping out. Naraku watched as she sat on her hood and rolled over it to avoid the branches and bushes beside her car. She walked over to a tree and reached up, pulling a branch down.

"You're fucking kidding me," Naraku shook his head with slight disbelief. Jade untied a small rope, which allowed the branch to drop and mask the car with its numerous leaves. Jade walked back, rolling over her hood again, and squeezing back into her car. She turned her key halfway to only cut the engine and looked over at Naraku.

"Done. This is my spot." Jade said, slowly waving her hand palm up, as if introducing him. Naraku couldn't hold it any longer. He started laughing, leaning his forehead against his hand.

"Alright," he choked, reaching into his pocket for the joint. "I will admit, this is exceptional."

"Finally. I impressed you with something." Jade exhaled, but Naraku could tell she was being sarcastic. He held the joint up to her, checking his other pockets for his lighter.

"If I forgot my lighter,"

"Glove box." Jade pointed in front of Naraku. He opened it and pulled the orange Bic lighter out. He offered it to her, but even in the darkness, he could see her eyebrow arch.

"Oh, right. You think I would let you drive me all the way out here just to poison you?" Naraku asked, finally getting a flame on his third try with the lighter. Jade held the end of the joint to the flame and when it lit, Naraku took it from her.

"I don't know you," Jade argued in a soft, high-pitched voice. She rolled the passenger window down. "Blow it out there, cowboy."

"Heh," Naraku took as much into his lungs as he could, holding it and rolling his eyes at her dramatically, briefly acting out a fake seizure, and exhaling the cloud out the window.

"And now," Jade tapped the screen of her phone, activating the stopwatch feature.

"Oh, come oooooon," Naraku tauntingly waved the joint in front of her face. "I wouldn't poison myself."

"I know. You just want me to buy off you." Jade said, turning sideways in her seat to face him. Naraku's eyes narrowed.

"Then why did you have me blow the smoke," The realization of the situation hit him like a truck. She knew the entire time? Naraku looked at the joint, then back at Jade, who was grinning widely while nodding her head slowly.

"Yeeeeeeuh, bruh. What up?" she teased, both hands pointing towards her crotch victoriously.

' _This bitch...I can't necessarily leave, either.'_ Naraku inhaled through his nose deeply. She played him? She played him! The breath he exhaled could have been fire with the amount of rage boiling inside him.

"You going to share that shit or what?" Jade asked, still grinning and giggling an shifting side to side in her seat with excitement. Naraku handed her the joint silently and stiffly, staring straight through the windshield.

' _If I strangle her, she still wins. Goddamn it.'_ Naraku closed his eyes. He heard the motor of the window beside him whine as the glass rose. Then, he heard her slow, steady exhale and her soft, "Whoa." Naraku took some solace from that.

"You look like you could use another hit," Jade announced. After another moment of silence, she held the joint under Naraku's nose. Naraku opened his eyes and pinched the joint slowly between his thumb and index finger. He couldn't bring himself to speak.

Naraku closed his eyes...or had they already been closed? He didn't know. The only thing he knew was that it had been a long time since either Jade or he had spoken. When the joint still existed, they would either poke one another when ready for another smoke or simply say, "Hey." But, once it was gone, they would just exhale or yawn. Naraku figured they had been sitting there for at least an hour if not two. Probably three.

"Oh my God," Jade began, shifting in her seat. She swore that her eyes were sinking into her skull. "Wh-What did you do to this shit?"

"I did nothing." Naraku responded, his voice barely above a whisper. His eyes had been closed longer than Jade's; the heavy warmth crept up his body as he came closer to falling into a deep sleep. He reached to the side of the seat and pulled the lever to lower the back of his seat into a sleeping position.

"I've never had weed do this to me before,"

"I thought you were down," Naraku insisted with a lazy grin.

"You told me it was fine; it tasted like strawberries. What did you do?"

"Don't worry about it."

"You said you did nothing,"

"Nothing dangerous." Naraku corrected, lifting a finger to scratch the itch on his cheek. He readjusted his body in the seat and cupped his hands on his stomach.

"Oh my God, I'm sinking,"

"I didn't know you were so sensitive. My apologies."

"Fuck you."

"Heh," Naraku inhaled deeply and felt himself being pulled into the seat. It had been a while since he felt so relaxed, especially in the presence of another person. It felt nice, and Naraku gritted his teeth. He hated that feeling. He pushed the thought from his mind by focusing on Jade's nervous giggling and continuous questioning of, "What is this?" Before he realized it, he had fallen asleep and the car had gone silent again. For another hour? Two? He still had no idea. He was sure he was asleep, but something was keeping him from fully losing consciousness. The inside of the car was uncomfortably warm, but there was something else bothering him.

' _My leg! It's burning!'_

Naraku inhaled sharply through his nose and felt his body jerk unwillingly in the seat, yanking him back into reality. He exhaled shakily and immediately pressed his right hand to his pocket. It was very warm. His hand slipped inside and touched the little gem. Within seconds, the heat left his pocket and Naraku's breath left his lungs.

' _Am I imagining it?'_ Naraku wondered, taking a moment to steady his labored breathing. He sat up and looked over where Jade lay in the reclined driver's seat. She was still submerged in her hazed slumber. Time seemed to have jumped forward another hour since they fell asleep. Naraku placed his hand back in his pocket. It was warm from his body, but seconds ago, it was almost as hot as heat from a fire.

' _Maybe not.'_ Naraku readjusted his seat so he could sit upright. The clank of the handle disturbed Jade, whose body jerked as she inhaled sharply.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck...what happened?" Jade groaned, pushing herself into a sitting position.

"Nothing." Naraku answered, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand.

"Fuck." Jade exhaled, readjusting her seat into the sitting position.

"Verdict?" Naraku asked, looking over at Jade with half a smile. Jade snorted quietly as she shook her head.

"I don't know, man. Can you grow some shit that doesn't give me weird dreams?"

"Weird dreams?" Naraku repeated. He immediately remembered the burning sensation on his leg.

"Yeah, weird dreams. I don't mind them, but if it's going to do that all the time, then no deal."

"To be honest, this is the first I've heard of it." Naraku said. It was the first time he had experienced it himself, so he doubted it was going to happen every time.

"Fine. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It dropped me hard." Jade remarked with a soft laugh, absentmindedly rubbing her wrist with her hand.

"Do you not like being dropped?"

"Not quite that hard- stop smiling at me, asshole." Jade bit out playfully. Naraku chuckled and shrugged dramatically.

"I suppose I'll give you the weenie stash next time."

"Oh, eat me, Naraku. I probably just smoked too much. I smoke often, but not a huge amount every time."

"Stoner Jade defeated."

"You didn't outlast me, prick."

"I was not competing with you; the weed was." Naraku pointed out. Jade bit her bottom lip, trying her hide her smile, but it did not work. She shook her head and turned the keys in her ignition, turning the car on and rolling down the windows. They both sighed with relief when the heat escaped the car. It was still hot and mildly humid outside, but the car had become noticeably worse.

"Oops." Jade whispered.

"Hm?"

"My roommates wanted me home so I could do stuff with them tomorrow...later."

"Stuff?"

"No idea. They only said, "stuff."" she replied, quoting the air with her fingers.

"Oh." Naraku looked down at his lap. Jade knew that and yet she still chose to drive him out to her secret spot and smoke with him? As soon as the warmth filled his face, his leg began to shake side to side.

"I think I'm good to drive now." Jade continued, starting the engine to her car.

"If you kill us, I'm dragging you to Hell with me."

"Do it. Satan is a friend of mine." Jade switched her car into drive, only to curse and put it back into park. "I forgot the stupid branch."

Naraku exhaled loudly when he reached his apartment door. Apparently, Jade had felt the odd need to walk him to his door and bid him goodnight. His immediate thought was that she wanted him. It made his skin crawl, though, he had no evidence beyond his own mind that Jade wanted anything from him like that. She never asked to come in or what he was going to do. She only told him goodnight. Then, his mouth betrayed him.

"Are you hungry?" he asked her. Jade had turned to walk away, but she looked back at him, eyes widened as she thought about her answer. Naraku arched an eyebrow, half-tempted to recant his offer.

"Yeah." she finally agreed after what felt like hours. Neither stoner could tell if they were actually thinking and speaking slowly or if the weed was making it seem that way. Naraku pushed the door open and motioned for her to go first, following her in and closing the door.

"Do you always do that or are you doing it because I'm Japanese?" Naraku asked, pointing at Jade's feet as she removed her shoes.

"I assumed you were Korean." Jade shot back gently.

"Funny."

"No, I always do this. It's rude to track dirt into other people's homes, even if they're a filthy gook."

Naraku had to look at her because her tone said, "I'm serious." She was staring back at him. She wanted him to get upset, he assumed. So, instead, Naraku stared back calmly.

"One day, you'll find a slur that matches my ethnicity."

"I'd love to tell you that you'd be able to see that day, but with those squinty-eyes,"

Naraku's hand flew to his mouth as a boisterous laugh escaped it, echoing through his living room. They both glanced over at the cage where the guinea pig had ran into hiding out of fear from the loud, unfamiliar noise. Once Naraku saw the pig poke its head back out to sniff the air, he inhaled deeply through his nose before looking back at Jade, who was waiting patiently with her arms crossed.

"Alright. That was actually funny." Naraku admitted after licking the inside of his mouth to force the smile away.

"I appreciate your honesty." Jade replied, resting her arms at her side and bowing quickly.

"You're pushing your luck," Naraku warned lazily as he walked to his kitchen. In all fairness, she was amusing him more than he could have imagined. He no longer regretted inviting her in for food.

Jade stood behind Naraku as he fried up the eggs he cracked open into the pan. He glanced back at her a few times, watching her face go from, "Whoa," to, "This smells great." If she had any snarky comments, she was holding them back.

' _Don't bite the hand that feeds you; at least she's considerate.'_ Naraku thought, until Jade stepped forward and sniffed the air loudly. Naraku prepared to eat his previous thought.

"Fuck me, is this some ancient Chinese secret to making omelettes or some shit? Smells great." Jade sighed. Naraku rolled his eyes, but his mouth was out of his control, stretching and showing his smile once more.

"If you can't watch quietly, then go sit down. Quietly."

"Did 'Nam take your sense of humor and your legs?" she asked quickly. Naraku was able to close his mouth, but it ended up making him giggle instead! He felt his back muscles strain to keep him from slamming his face down and frying it alongside the eggs to hide the pain of his shame.

"Go away!" Naraku hissed, not from anger, but from trying to hold back more laughter.

"No, asshole! You're going to poison my ching-chong omelette!" Jade argued. Naraku couldn't hold it any longer, backing away from the stove as he leaned against his refrigerator, the laughter straining his stomach and causing him to double-over in pain.

"You...You racist piece of shit!" Naraku choked out. Jade had fallen into her own fit of laughter, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"This is what the Internet does to people, okay? I'm not proud of it." she explained.

"Yes, you seem very torn up about it, Jade." Naraku said dryly, returning to the stove to finish cooking the eggs.

"Incredibly."

"Mmm, you're bringing me to tears with your sob story of how you became a racist."

"I'm not a racist; I'm just an asshole."

"No, I'm an asshole. I treat everyone equally. Horribly, but equally."

"No you don't! That's part of being an asshole! You're supposed treat people horribly at different levels! So one person can see they're being treated worse and hate everyone else because they're being treated better for no reason!"

"That is a fantastic idea. Why didn't I think of that?" Naraku asked dramatically, but on the inside, he was frantically asking himself why he hadn't thought of doing that before. It was a great idea!

"If you do it to me,"

"If I hear one more Asian slur slither out of your mouth,"

"Ho! I am so sorry, Senpai!" Jade blurted out with a heavy accent. Naraku's arm flexed tightly and he had to silently tell himself not to hit her with the spatula. Then, he began laughing again.

"You're terrible." Naraku insisted as he shook his head.

"Oh pleeeeeease,"

"I kind of like it." Naraku interrupted, winking at her before returning to the eggs, which were now burning. He caught a glimpse of Jade's shocked expression and from the silence, he concluded that he regained some control of the situation.

"You don't want to go there with me, bro." Jade giggled after a few moments of silence. Naraku turned and handed her a plate of slightly overcooked eggs and a fork.

"Oh?"

"No, you don't. You're stepping into some dangerous territory."

"I think I can handle your false advances." Naraku said before taking a bite of his eggs. Jade stabbed a piece onto her fork and exhaled loudly and slowly, as if she deeply regretted something.

"Whatever you say, Daddy." Jade shot with a smile, biting the eggs off her fork slowly, suggestively. Naraku stopped chewing and stared her down. He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks. He didn't like that. At all. Jade knew it, too. She returned the wink.

They both finished their eggs and walked to his couch, collapsing on it simultaneously. As soon as Jade felt comfortable, she felt the sleepiness overtake her again. Naraku watched her quietly. Once he saw she was out, he closed his eyes and slipped his hand into his pocket to touch the gem. It was still warm from being in his pocket and nothing more. He pulled his hand out and yawned.

' _A dream,'_


	11. Competitions and Corruptions

**Competitions and Corruptions**

"You did a good job, dude." Jade patted Ginta on the shoulder strongly. He grinned and placed his hands on his hips.

"Thanks, Jade." he exhaled. They both looked around the room slowly, gazing upon the four long tables with fourteen monitors sitting back to back and seven Xbox Ones set up on each set of monitors. It had all been set up by Ginta, with help from Koga and Hakkaku. Jade cleaned up the financial part, but Ginta had planned the room's set-up on his own. Different players walked around or stood with their teams, some carrying backpacks, others holding their controllers and arcade sticks in their hands. Jade looked over at the larger set of monitors at the front of the room and pointed at them.

"That's where Top Eight will be, right?" she asked.

"Yup. We'll live-stream Top Eight on our community channel and we'll also project the match on this wall over here so people can see." Ginta said, pointing to the wall behind them.

"How many showed up today?"

"About fifty. That isn't much, but look at who showed up," Ginta's finger slowly pointed from one end of the room to the other. "We have at least twenty serious tournament players here."

"Yeah, I see Wicked over there," Jade answered with a heavy sigh. She had faced WickedXWind online many times, and once at a previous tournament, and he won almost every match against her. Those losses didn't bother her nearly as much as his personality, though.

"Ew. Alright, I'm going to go find Koga. If I don't see you before it starts, good luck!" Ginta said as he walked away. Jade thanked him and bent down to grab her worn blue backpack. She slung it over her shoulder and decided to find something to do until the pool rounds began.

"Jade! Jaaaaade!" a feminine voice called. Jade frowned. A chick's voice was an unusual sound to hear at these tournaments, especially one calling her name. Jade stopped and turned around, feeling her mouth drop open when she saw Sango and Kagome jogging up to her. They were both wearing white capris and zipped-up white jackets.

"Hey," Jade said back. "What are you guys doing here? What's with the matching wardrobe?"

"Well, when you told us you had a tournament, we figured we would come support you." Kagome stated proudly.

"Ready, Kagome?" Sango called out. Both women grabbed the zippers of their jackets. "Three, two, one!" Both unzipped their jackets and ripped them open, revealing tie-dye shirts of swirling green, purple, and gray. The white print on the fronts of their shirts spelled, "Go, WeedWolf!"

"Hahahahaha!" Jade laughed heartily, her hand pressed against her chest.

"Hold on, hold on!" Kagome urged as she and Sango removed their jackets, spinning around to let her read the backs. Jade giggled when she read, "Win everything!"

"I'll do my best. Thanks. I appreciate it." Jade said with a wide smile.

"Heeeeeey, Kagome!" Koga called, running up to her and almost pushing Jade aside. Jade took a step over to give herself more space, grumbling an insult under her breath. Koga flipped her off without even looking at her and Jade debated grabbing his finger, but she decided to let the moment go.

"Hi, Koga. You're in the tournament, too?" Kagome asked, her face screaming, "Go away!" But Jade knew she didn't have the ability to be completely rude to Koga...yet.

"Yeah! Did you come here to support me?" he asked, his blue eyes almost shining.

"Um, no. I came here to support Jade." Kagome answered, pulling the bottom of her shirt out to show Koga what it said.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" a loud chorus erupted. Jade looked over and saw Ginta, Hakkaku, and several members of other teams all huddled to the side, pointing and laughing at the plate of denial served to Koga. Koga turned to them, his tan face showing a deep red blush.

"You guys can shut the fuck up!" Koga bellowed heatedly, his hands balled into tight fists.

"Hey, hey, I'll cheer for you, too! It's alright!" Kagome interjected, but she was barely able to hold back her laughter, so she covered her mouth with her hand.

"Come on, the pools are about to start. Let's all get ready now." Jade said loudly, waving her hands slowly. A few more comments were spat, but the crowd dispersed and Koga stomped away to save his pride.

"That," Kagome paused and sighed heavily, rubbing her forehead. "Did not go the way I hoped."

"To be honest, he was quick to assume," Sango said, sneakily pointing in the direction Koga stormed off in.

"I know, but I didn't want to embarrass him like that in front of everyone. People are mean."

"Nah, that's normal around here. Don't feel bad." Jade assured Kagome.

"I don't think that makes me feel any better."

"Koga has roasted his fair share of friends,"

"His ego is too big to deflate that easily." Sango said, her voice filled with slight irritation.

"Damn. You'd fit right in here." Jade told her in a low voice. Sango's hands rested on her hips proudly.

"I was raised by my dad and his friends alongside my brother. I can be hyper-masculine if I want to be." Sango responded strongly, her lips stretched into a sly smirk.

"Okay, okay, I'm not arguing," Jade relented, waving her hands submissively.

"So, what's going on? How does this all work?" Kagome asked curiously as she slowly looked around the room.

"Well, have you ever paid attention to sports brackets?"

"Yeah," Sango answered. Kagome's expression morphed from curious to worried.

"No." she said in a small voice. Jade shook her hands again.

"Don't be ashamed. I'm sure Sango will explain it while I'm playing."

"Hey, I think they're showing who you're facing on the projector," Sango interjected quickly, pointing towards the wall behind them. Jade whipped around and searched for her nickname.

' _Please don't be Wicked, please don't be Wicked, please don't be Wicked,'_ Jade worried. She finally found her nickname and sighed with relief when she didn't see WickedXWind sharing her bracket. Instead, she was facing someone named, "ShiftyDrifter."

"Thank Nara...Satan. I think I can at least make it through the first set of pools." Jade said aloud, hoping Sango and Kagome didn't hear her slip. She had been in the habit of equating Naraku to Satan in her mind ironically and now it was slipping into her speech unironically.

"What? Is there someone here you can't beat?" Kagome asked, looking around.

"Uh, there's about ten that I definitely can't beat. " Jade retorted with a snort.

"Really?" Sango quizzed, her tone revealing her skepticism. Jade nodded.

"Yep. I mean, I've been to tournaments before, but some of these guys? They're professional. I've played against a few of them online and got rocked. Hopefully, they knock each other out." Jade explained, turning back to the projector and checking the countdown.

"Well, I think you can beat them all." Sango said.

"I don't."

"Not with that attitude."

"Yeah, Jade! You play a lot; have some faith in yourself!" Kagome chimed in, holding up her fist. Jade leaned back and blinked.

"Are you threatening me?" Jade asked jokingly, staring at Kagome's raised fist.

"No, but would that work better?"

"Nope."

Jade shook her opponent's hand before sitting down at her assigned monitor. She plugged her arcade stick into the console, helping ShiftyDrifter do the same. They found their way to the fight screen after setting the matches for best two of three. Once Jade placed her headset on, her nerves melted away.

' _This is my game. Mine, mine, mine.'_ she chanted in her head. She chose Sabrewulf and wondered if she wanted to slap his mad scientist costume on. She decided not to and went with his Doberman color scheme. Jade noticed her opponent chose Glacius, the alien who could manipulate ice and keep her wolf at bay. If Shifty was any good with him, she was in trouble.

 **000000**

The high-pitched buzzing of the tattoo gun filled Naraku's ears and the stinging sensation on his back made his skin tingle. He exhaled slowly, a small smile pulling on his lips. He felt so relaxed that he even closed his eyes. When the buzzing stopped, he opened his eyes.

"Yes?" Naraku asked expectantly.

"It seems to be taking the ink better this time around," the tattoo artist, Joel, said. He wiped away the blood and cleared his throat.

"That doesn't mean it will retain the ink." Naraku said back.

"No. That's how it is with scars sometimes, dude. But it doesn't look bad."

"I want it to look perfect."

"I get that, but it's just not gonna happen."

"Hm," Naraku huffed, closing his eyes when the gun began buzzing again. He didn't wish to talk about it anymore.

' _It cannot be changed, so let it go.'_ Naraku scolded himself when he felt the familiar uprising of discontent in his chest. His body was beautiful, but it could not be perfect because of the scar. It drove him crazier than he cared to admit, even to himself.

Naraku paid for his session and left Joel a tip. It looked even better this time around, but he and Joel knew it was only a matter of time before it would need a touch-up again. Until then, Naraku would be mildly content with his body. He decided to drive to the lab and weigh out his thesis samples.

Naraku dropped his keys on his desk, placing his box of samples beside them gently. He opened the box and counted the amount of bags again for the umpteenth time to quiet that anxious voice inside his head telling him to make sure he had everything. The fingers on his right hand pressed against his pocket, feeling the small bulge from the gem inside his pocket.

"Hm?" Naraku saw a blue sticky note sitting on his desk's surface and peeled it off.

' _ **I won't be in Saturday or Sunday and I'll be ready to discuss the first three articles on Monday. - Jade'**_

Naraku crumpled the note with his hand and dropped it in the trash can beside his desk. He didn't mind Jade taking the weekend off, but her note did remind him that he had yet to receive her cell phone number. He hadn't exactly asked for it and he knew better than to assume she would willingly give it to him on her own accord. Naraku's sight shifted back to his samples. Her number was a problem for another day.

Once he had a stool set up in front of the analytical balance, Naraku turned to his laptop and activated his playlist. He usually preferred silence, but even he couldn't stand the silence of the empty laboratory. It almost hurt his ears. Naraku opened his first sample bag, placing a little plastic boat on the balance, closing the door and zeroing out the boat's weight. He dipped a small, thin metal spoon into his sediment sample, and opened the balance's door again. With a slight flick, he dropped bits of grain into the boat, stopping when it measured to a tenth of a gram perfectly. He recorded the information on the Excel spreadsheet he had prepared on his laptop and gently poured the weighed sample into a centrifuge tube. Naraku wiped off the spoon and boat and did it all again with the second sample, and the third, and fourth, and so on. It was tedious work and it seemed to greatly irritate everyone but Naraku.

Two hundred samples weighed out in less than two hours. It wasn't his best record, but it didn't matter. Or maybe it did? He crossed his arms and exhaled slowly.

' _Should I weigh out the samples for my next process ahead of time or no?'_ he wondered. Either way, he had to wait until Wednesday before he could officially begin. Wednesday was chemical delivery day and they were currently missing several chemicals he needed to dissolve and extract the materials he was going to study from his samples. The door rattled before opening and Naraku looked over, feeling the elated rise of excitement in his chest.

"Hello, Sesshomaru," Naraku called out. The white-haired man began rummaging through his desk, glancing up briefly before returning to his search.

"I would prefer you to pretend that I don't exist." Sesshomaru answered coolly.

"Come now, Sessh, don't be rude,"

"Don't call me that." Sesshomaru threatened, his calm voice gaining a hard edge to it. Naraku smirked, holding himself up on the table with his hands.

"Oh, that's right. Only your mother can call you that." Naraku pressed a hand to his chest and lightened his expression. Sesshomaru slammed his desk drawer shut and straightened his posture. He was angry, but his face didn't show it...yet.

"Do you want me to kill you? All you have to do is ask. There's no need to bring my mother into this."

"Me being inside your mother is what started thi-" Naraku ducked when Sesshomaru hurled the cup of pens and pencils from his desk at him. The cup and utensils scattered all over the floor and counter behind Naraku, who popped back up like a demented Whack-A-Mole machine.

"Shut. Up." Sesshomaru bit out when he saw Naraku's mouth open. Naraku shot him a sympathetic look instead. Sesshomaru marched over to Naraku, who placed his hands on his hips and even stuck his chin out slightly, as if to say, "Take your best shot." Sesshomaru debated it. Heavily.

"I'm still taller than you." Naraku said in a low voice. Sesshomaru answered that with a vicious headbutt, throwing his body into it. Naraku fell back holding his nose, but he kept his footing. Sesshomaru rubbed his forehead as he stepped back.

"You're not tall enough to avoid that." Sesshomaru retorted. While pinching his nose, Naraku grinned, his teeth colored red from his cut lip.

"Sassy. I wondered when we would return to where we left off." Naraku exhaled, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his gray shirt.

"Return? We never left that point." Sesshomaru said, turning around and walking back over to his desk. He reopened the drawer and began searching again. When he found a flashdrive, he slipped it into his pocket and closed the drawer. As he opened the door, he turned back to Naraku. "If you ever mention my mother in my presence again, I'll make sure no one can identify your body."

"Don't threaten me with a good time, Sessh." Naraku called back, chuckling when the door slammed shut. He wiped his nose again and decided to call it a day. He didn't want to possibly contaminate his samples.

 **000000**

"Alright, alright, alright! We have our Top Eight, which is displayed on the projector!" Ginta said into the microphone. "Those of you who made it to Top Eight, we start in thirty minutes with or without you. You've all been to tournaments, so you know how that works."

"Gayyyyyyyyyyyyy!" someone squealed, causing the room to start laughing and echoing the call. Ginta tried not to laugh and smiled instead.

"I'm glad you're all comfortable enough to come out of the closet with each other." Ginta said into the microphone, eliciting another, louder wave of laughs and calls of, "Gay," from the players.

"Everyone in here is twelve years old." Sango commented sarcastically. Jade snickered in agreement. She looked around, spun, then looked back at Sango.

"Where's Kagome?" Jade asked her.

"She went to grab food for us. We didn't know there would be a break."

"Me either."

"If we could all just calm down for a moment, there is another announcement for me to make. It's about the prize money for the Top Three," Ginta stated. That was enough for the crowd to go deathly silent. "Since this is an event hosted by The Pack, and since the prize money was raised by The Pack, no Pack members can receive the prize money if they place first, second, or third. If they happen to place in one of those spots, the money awarded to that spot will trickle down to the next person who isn't a member."

"Oh? That sucks for you, doesn't it?" Sango asked Jade, elbowing her gently.

"I already knew. I'm in charge of our finances."

"Our? You guys have enough money to need an accountant?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that. We donate a lot of it to charities or to events like this. If someone wants to be a Pack member and they pass whatever tests and if they need equipment, we send that equipment to them."

"That's really neat, actually." Sango's expression lightened from skeptic to impressed. "I assumed you guys just spent it on weed."

"Haha, nah. That's our own money we fork out for that."

"What's in this tournament for you if it isn't money?" Sango continued. Jade blinked, holding back any expressions. Sango's interrogations nearly reminded Jade of Naraku's poking and prodding.

"The Top Eight are guaranteed a spot in pools for any of the Regionals."

"You're going to throw it now, aren't you?"

"What?" Jade felt her heart drop into her stomach. Of course she was going to throw it. There was no reason for her not to at this point, but she couldn't say it out loud, especially with other Pack members walking around. Sango gasped dramatically, completely taken aback by her own prediction being true.

"Jade!" Sango hissed, almost as if it was a curse. "You are? Come on! Own this tournament for your team!"

"There's no reason to." Jade said back in a lower voice, trying not to draw attention to their conversation.

"Bragging rights? Showing them that a woman is just as good as them? I can think of plenty of reasons!"

"I'm in Top Eight. They know I'm good enough. I got what I wanted anyway, so, yeah,"

"Oh, I get it now. It's part of your strategy. You don't want everyone to know how capable you are."

"Don't tell everyone!" Jade insisted, holding her finger in front of her mouth to hush her friend.

"I won't, I won't! I don't agree with it, but I get it." Sango said reassuringly. Jade shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"I want to get to the World Cup, but I can't really just claw my way to it. I have to choose my battles."

"I can't believe you're the only woman in this tournament. Are you the only woman who plays?"

"It's a small tournament. There are more chicks at the bigger tournaments and online."

"I'm half-tempted to learn how to play so I can win these stupid things since you don't want to." Sango huffed as she crossed her arms. Jade giggled and held her arcade stick up with both hands.

"I can teach you."

"Good. I want to play as the hot chick with the big boobs who turns into that fiery-tiger thing."

"That's Orchid. She's pretty good, actually."

"Jade, don't throw this next match," Sango whined after a moment of silence. Jade exhaled slowly, looking up at the ceiling exasperatingly.

"I'm not placing lower than Koga. Give me some credit." Jade grumbled.

"Hahaha, you're damn right you're not! Show him a real alpha!"

"Who's an alpha?" a voice chirped, causing Sango to jump and Jade to grimace. She turned around and twisted her grimace into a smile. It was WickedXWind. He towered over both women, an eyebrow arched.

"Hey, Wicked. Congrats!" Jade said with a wave.

"I thought we were on a first-name basis?" he asked.

"Eh." Jade shrugged. She never agreed when he last declared that they should be.

"So, what's this talk about an alpha? You wouldn't be talking mad shit about Koga, now would you?" Wicked asked with a grin. Jade could almost hear Sango swoon behind her. WickedXWind didn't look like the stereotypical gamer nerd. He was tall with a smooth, tan face clean of any blemishes, straight white teeth, and blue eyes that seemed to light up the room. Even Jade couldn't deny how attractive he was, but just like with Naraku, Wicked would open his mouth and immediately shut-down any base thoughts she would have about him.

"Talking mad shit about Koga is my day job. And my night job." Jade retorted evenly.

"Heh, then I'll be sure to send him your way to Losers."

"Please do."

"Still rockin' Sabrewulf, too? You've perfected him. You need to move on to a different character." Wicked suggested, but his tone sounded more like an order. Jade looked away for a brief second, contemplating her life choices that brought her to this moment.

"How do you know if I haven't been using someone else?" Jade asked cleverly, examining her fingernails.

' _I already have a second character, bruh.'_ Jade wanted to scream, but she swallowed the words.

"I watch your streams, Jade. You always use 'Wulf."

"Ah, fair enough. Maybe I'll pick up Fuglore." Jade replied with a deep, goofy accent.

"Fulgore." Wicked corrected her.

"Fuglore." Jade insisted. Wicked laughed and ran a hand through his short brown hair.

"Call him what you want. He beats and eats high wolves for breakfast." he stated haughtily. Jade gasped dramatically.

"He's going to beat me off and eat me out? That's awesome."

"Fiiiiiiiiine. Don't have a serious conversation with me."

"As you wish." Jade said, saluting him quickly. Wicked shook his head, but he told Jade good luck and walked away peacefully.

"Um, so, who is he?" Sango asked slowly. Jade could tell by her tone alone what she was implying.

"Just a guy who's better at _KI_ than I am."

"He seemed really focused on you and what you do."

"He likes to think he gives good advice, but he comes off as arrogant. He's part of Gamers Anonymous, which is a rival community, so they study our stuff and invite us to play against them and vice-versa. That's why he knows about me." Jade explained.

"Oh. So, the different teams are just rivals, not necessarily enemies?"

"Right. Obviously, some individuals on one team hate individuals on another, but there hasn't been an actual boycott or mudslinging from one team to another. It's looked down upon. At least in the fighting game communities. I can't say about the others."

"I see. I had no idea this was all so complex. It's almost exactly like a sport." Sango said with a smile. Her competitive nature made this seem even more alluring. A week ago, she couldn't care less about video games and now, she actually wanted to take Jade up on learning how to play.

"Jade! Did you win?" Kagome called out. She walked up, holding a styrofoam tray with cups sitting in it. Hanging off her wrists were plastic bags holding the different orders of grub that Sango had requested.

"Yeah." Jade said, flinching when Kagome gasped and jogged in place.

"Whoa, let's take this first," Sango insisted, taking the tray of cups from Kagome.

"So you made it to the Top Eight? Sweet! High five!" Kagome held her hand up and Jade gently tapped her palm against Kagome's.

"I'm in Losers, though." Jade informed her, reaching for one of the plastic bags.

"Yeah, she's going to throw the tournament now." Sango said begrudgingly, ignoring Jade's groan of protest and shushing.

"What? Why? No, you need to win!" Kagome ordered.

"Nah." Jade replied blandly, motioning with her hand to lower their voices.

"Don't waste your breath, Kagome. I already tried."

"Well, I'm sure she has a good reason," Kagome chirped, looking at Jade with a smile. Jade nodded reassuringly.

The break was over, food was eaten, and the matches were now being held up on stage. They were projected onto the wall so the audience could watch and streamed live for those who could not make it or simply wanted to watch from home. It was now easier for the audience to hear the game's sounds and music, both of which Sango seemed impressed by. The crowd had grown a bit as the day droned on. Curious people who were shopping or simply hanging out at the mall would stop in to watch or ask questions about the tournament or The Pack.

' _How did Koga make it this far?'_ Jade wondered with annoyance. She had promised herself, and Sango, that she would throw the tournament once she passed Koga, but he must have hacked the Matrix, because he had blasted through Winners and every person he defeated, Jade also had to defeat to stay in the tournament, and they weren't in Top Eight for nothing. She almost lost her last set and she was actually trying that time. Now Koga was fighting WickedXWind and was even giving him a hard time!

"I didn't know Koga was this good," Kagome said aloud.

"He usually isn't. He's not bad, but something must have clicked with him today." Jade replied, her eyes never leaving the game.

"He's probably revenge-killing everyone who laughed at him earlier." Sango said with a snort.

"Fuuuuuuuuck me! He won that?" Jade exclaimed, her voice barely audible over the crowd erupting into a mix of howls and boos.

"There's just one match left, right?" Sango asked.

"Yeah." Jade sighed, crossing her arms. Wicked and Koga had each won two matches and since it was Top Eight, the sets were now to win three out of five. Koga had the winner's momentum, though. Both players had jumped into their final match without a small break or without consulting a, "coach," they had chosen before the match. Wicked was already down half a health bar, Koga's brown werewolf assaulting his black metal cyborg viciously.

"Break it!" Jade hissed, celebrating silently when the cyborg's plasma blades intercepted Koga's combo. Koga tried to break Wicked's combo, but missed the timing and was locked out, allowing Wicked to even out the health bars.

"You want Koga to lose?" Kagome asked Jade, tapping her on the arm.

"I usually play better than him. It's the natural order." Jade explained calmly.

"Ooookay," Kagome replied, glancing at Sango, who shrugged and shook her head. Jade ignored them. Sango and Kagome believed in supporting friends and teammates, and to a point, Jade agreed. They just didn't know Koga like she did.

"Hell yeah!" Jade shouted when Wicked countered Koga and finished his last bit of health. Koga cursed and shook his head, but he shook Wicked's hand and wished him luck anyway. Koga then turned and saw Jade, waving at her tauntingly. Jade handed her backpack to Sango, tucking her arcade stick under her arm before approaching the stage.

"Good luck, Jade!" Kagome called out.

"Give him Hell!" Sango added. Both women looked around when the crowd began erupting in howls. Some were serious, but others were sarcastic and drawn out.

"Thaaaaaaat's right! Who's the Alpha?" Koga laughed, flexing his arms in various positions.

"You suck!" a deep-voiced player shouted.

"So does your mom!" Koga yelled back, ignoring any further taunts from the crowd. He turned to Jade, who had already plugged in her arcade stick.

"I want a button check." Jade said plainly, pointing to her monitor.

"Sure." Koga agreed, stepping closer to Jade. "Hey, is there a chance you could, I don't know, let me win so I can have a salty runback with Wicked?"

"Give me a raise."

"I can't."

"Well, sucks to suck."

"Come on, Jade. Could you at least make it look close?"

"Mmm," Jade decided not to answer, taking her seat in front of her monitor. Koga sighed heavily and sat in front of his monitor, returning the game back to the character selection screen. They both chose Sabrewulf, Koga sticking with the default blue fur and Jade choosing her favorite Doberman fur. Koga chose the stage and theme music and when the game began, his werewolf lurched forward.

"Hey, asshole! I asked for a button check!" Jade said loudly, breaking his combo and blocking his next attempt. When the crowd heard her outburst, they began booing loudly and shouting various insults.

"I know! I was checking my buttons first! You can check yours now!" Koga replied, his tone reflecting his usual argumentative nature. Jade sat back in her chair and exhaled, tapping each button to make sure it did what she wanted when she wanted. She also made sure not to strike Koga's werewolf out of respect.

"Ready." Jade announced, holding her thumb up after pulling the headset over her ears. Koga nodded and reset the match. When Jade heard the announcer yell, "Fight!" she made her werewolf charge forward and dive under Koga's werewolf, crossing him up and starting a combo, only to dive back to the other side and finish it. She slammed Koga's werewolf into the wall, causing him to bounce back and open him up helplessly for a second combo.

' _Come on, asshole! Hit me!'_ Jade's fingers hovered over the buttons. Koga's werewolf swung; one, two, three! On the third, Jade activated her shadow counter and charged back at him. When she heard the break attempt being counted off, she threw in a counter and Koga fell for it. Jade used one shadow meter to deplete his first life bar and made her werewolf crouch over Koga's unconscious werewolf's body. She grinned when she heard the crowd sing, "OOOOOOOOOH!"

 **000000**

Naraku inhaled deeply and slowly, trying to refrain from pushing the towel-wrapped ice pack too harshly on his lips and nose. The pain didn't bother him, but the bruising did. He held his phone up and turned on the front-facing camera, examining his nose and lips closely. His nose looked fine, but his lips were swollen.

"Worth it." he chuckled, placing his phone on the couch beside him. He puckered his lips slightly, pressing them into the ice pack once more, and his gaze locked with the purple gem sitting on the page of an opened Mineralogy textbook. There were countless minerals on the planet. It had to be one of them.

' _Or, perhaps it is something else. A newly discovered mineral, tougher than diamond, more refractive than dolomite, and more vivid than fluorite,'_ It sounded ridiculous in his head, but what else could it possibly be? It was resistant to gravity, weight, friction, fire, water, and even the strongest acids in the Chemistry department did absolutely nothing to it.

' _Where did it come from? Around my sample site, I assume.'_ Naraku placed the ice pack down and picked up his phone. He found his list of email contacts and found the main account of the people who sent his samples. Naraku typed an email asking about where exactly sample, "two-hundred one," was found in his study area. He had plenty of maps and pictures of his area, but until he knew more from these people, he only had two-hundred samples as far as he was concerned.

"Hm," Naraku decided he was hungry for pizza. He hadn't seen Jade for a few days, so it was time to pick on her again. He found the number and hit the call button.

"Pizza Bar, how can I help you?" a young girl asked with a sigh. She sounded annoyed.

"This will be for delivery and I want Jade to deliver it." Naraku said.

"Jade's off tonight."

"Really?" Naraku didn't mean to sound so surprised, but since when did Jade take a day off from making money entirely?

"Yeah. I think it was a sick day or something?"

"Oh." Naraku frowned, cancelling the call abruptly.

' _Is she sick? She didn't mention that in the note.'_ Naraku now wanted her phone number more than ever. She wasn't allowed to go days without hearing from him anymore. He pressed his hand to his stomach when he felt an unsettling discomfort, as if his stomach was boiling, and suddenly, his entire body felt warm.

"Did she get me sick, too?" he asked in a hushed, angered voice. He knew that wasn't it. Why would he suddenly feel symptoms after learning she was possibly sick? Was she actually sick?

' _Why does it matter? I don't care.'_ Naraku stood up and closed the textbooks on his table, pocketing the gem. Naraku gathered his books and carried them back to his office, sliding them back into place on his bookshelf. He opened his drawer to drop the gem into the box he specifically made for it.

Naraku bit into an apple, slowly chewing. He didn't acknowledge what he was doing until he felt the juice dribbling down his chin. He blinked before reaching up with his left hand to wipe the juice away. Naraku looked over where he heard the rattling and squeaking of the seemingly-famished guinea pig.

"You're hungry. Right." Naraku stood from the couch and walked into the kitchen, cutting a chunk from the apple. He fed the guinea pig and sat back down on his couch, exhaling loudly. He switched the apple to his left hand, reaching into his pocket with his right hand to grab his phone.

Instead, he grabbed the gem.

 **000000**

Jade sat back in her chair, listening as the beats of the music synchronised with her werewolf's winning combo. She forced herself not to smile. As much as she wanted to beat Koga, he was her teammate and her leader, so she owed him some semblance of respect despite the beatdown she dropped on him.

"Man, did you really have to go that hard?" Koga asked when he approached Jade.

"You just flew through most of Winners and you wanted me to go easy on you?" Jade asked back skeptically. Koga thought for a moment before grinning and nodding.

"True, true! Take the title, then!"

"We'll see." Jade said back, waving to Kagome and Sango, who were both screaming and showing off their shirts to the players around them.

"Alriiiiiiight! We have your Top Three! In Grand Finals, guaranteed at least second place, if not first, is DiddleDis!" Ginta announced, turning away from the microphone to laugh, "Dude, please change your name. Anyway, battling for the second spot in Grand Finals will be WickedXWind and our very own WeedWolf!"

"I LOVE YOU, WEED!" a player screamed breathlessly, being echoed by several other players.

"I love weed, too." Jade retorted, waving in the general direction of her admirer. The room erupted in laughter and obnoxious howling, the playful boos of Wicked's teammates being drowned out entirely.

"Ready to lose?" Wicked asked Jade after leaning close to her ear. She instinctively rubbed her ear with her shoulder.

"Sure." Jade said, walking back to her seat.

Their first two matches went quickly and entirely in Wicked's favor, much to Jade's annoyance. His cyborg, Fulgore, had too many answers to Sabrewulf's entire moveset. The werewolf is diving at him? Teleport behind him and punish him. The werewolf is far away? Shoot laser beams and plasma blades to force him to block and keep him from getting too close. Is he jumping from above? Uppercut him. He's blocking? Hit him with an overhead.

' _He's such bullshit.'_ Jade thought bitterly. Instead of immediately starting the next match, she decided to go back to character select to disrupt the enormous momentum Wicked built up. Her eyes locked on her second, secret character.

' _Wicked would lose his shit if I showed him my Spinal,'_ Jade smiled, even chuckled at the image of Wicked's mouth dropping open if Jade selected the maniacal shield-and-sword-wielding skeleton. The crowd would scream, too, and they probably wouldn't stop until they passed out. Instead, Jade jumped to Sabrewulf, choosing the black fur this time. Wicked chose Fulgore's stage and Fulgore's theme, leaning over from his monitor to grin at Jade.

"Jaaaaaaaade! Kick his ass! I know you hear me!" Sango bellowed, almost leaping up onto the stage with Kagome hanging onto her. Jade glanced at her and shook her head. Did she not understand? WickedXWind was better than WeedWolf. On paper and in real life.

"Fight!" the announcer shouted for the third and final time. Jade blocked the first few hits and came back swinging, catching the cyborg during his back-dash animation. It must have been a mistake, but Jade punished him all the same. Sabrewulf swept a clawed hand and knocked the cyborg to the ground. When he stood up, Sabrewulf grabbed his leg with his fangs, swinging him overhead and slamming him on the ground back into the corner. He stood up and activated a counter and Jade silently cursed when she hit it, allowing him to answer back with a strong combo. Jade tried to break it, but guessed wrong, like she had every time before, and he took her first health bar.

' _He doesn't have a huge lead. Be patient.'_ Jade waited for the announcer to growl, "Ready," and the match continued into the second round. Jade blocked the onslaught of Wicked's next combo. When Jade saw her special attack meters were both full, she launched a counter, knowing he would fall for it. She answered his previous counter with her own and brought the match back to equal footing. She and Wicked traded blows. They seemed evenly matched this time around. Jade was putting her energy into predicting his mistakes rather than his moves altogether and it was working.

' _He's actually going to hype-beam me.'_ she realized. He had activated his Instinct mode, giving him full power. Jade's health was low enough that it would finish her with one final, epic blow. But even then, it was a risky, cocky move. Jade also had her Instinct and her meters were full. She just had to touch him once and she could take the match! Jade started dashing back and forth, hoping he would take the bait.

And he did! The match froze and zoomed up on the cyborg as his chest plates flexed open to fire the charged laser. Jade tapped the input for her projective-invincible move so furiously, she thought the buttons would shatter. The match froze again and zoomed in on Sabrewulf. Surrounded by his shadow energy, he eluded the large and loud laser cannon, jumping and slamming into the cyborg. Jade activated her Instinct to end her combo safely and spent her second meter to open him for an Ultra Combo.

"Yes!" Jade hissed quietly, leaning back in her seat with her eyes closed as she listened to the pounding beats of Fulgore's song synced with her Sabrewulf's rabid strikes. The crowd was screaming, waving their hands, high-fiving one another, pointing at her and Wicked.

Wicked had backed out to the character select screen this time. Jade giggled, but kept any smart-ass comments to herself. She watched as he pointed at one of his red-shirted teammates. They ran up on stage and knelt beside him, pointing his mistakes out to him. Jade turned and pointed at Koga, who vaulted up and jogged to her side.

"That was cool, but it was close," Koga breathed, barely able to contain his excitement.

"Yeah, I know. What I don't know is what to do. I got lucky." Jade said back.

"Shadow Jumping Slash is your answer to most of his bullshit. His lasers, his plasma shots, his hype beam...all projectiles and it goes right through them."

"But if I do that, he'll just teleport behind me and punish me."

"You always play different when you play him. Why?" Koga asked, glancing at the clock on the screen to make sure he still had time.

"I don't?" Jade answered back questioningly.

"Yeah you do! When you play me, Bulletz, Diddle, anyone else, you bait us into doing dumb shit so you can punish us." Koga sighed heavily. "Look at what you did with the beam. You baited him. Don't assault him; annoy him."

"Alright, the clock's almost out."

"Fuck 'em up!" Koga cheered, sprinting off the stage and leaping back into the crowd. Jade chose her black Sabrewulf once more and waited for Wicked's teammate to run off stage before continuing to the stage select. She hit random again and waited for the game to load.

"Annoy him, annoy him, annoy him," Jade whispered under her breath, her fingers tapping her buttons quickly and lightly. The match started and Jade made Sabrewulf dash back and forth, over and over. Then, she dashed back twice, Fulgore's blade charge missing and allowing her to land a short combo. Once she had the health lead, Jade pulled back, her werewolf squatting and waiting patiently. Wicked could only shoot lasers, which did almost no damage when she blocked and would not help him win before the match timed out. Since he hadn't been able to land any hits, he could not build his energy. His cyborg was semi-helpless.

"Really?" she heard Wicked cry out with annoyance. Jade's smile widened. When Wicked teleported, she backed away again. When he shot lasers, she blocked. Both characters remained stationary for a moment before Fulgore raised his arm, his blade shooting upward to flip her off. Jade tapped her taunt button in return, Sabrewulf howling to the sky powerfully. Wicked taunted her again and she taunted right back. He teleported in front of her and Jade dove low, hitting the cyborg and landing another short combo. She taunted again. Wicked hit his taunt button, too, and Jade launched Sabrewulf forward, slaughtering the cyborg mid-taunt and going for big damage. Wicked tried to break, but he missed the timing due to being thrown off by Jade's sudden attack.

"I learned that one from Koga!" Jade stated. Wicked charged at her after he resurrected from losing his first health bar. This time, she jumped and dove behind him. Usually, he would have uppercut her, but he was blind with salt now.

"Come on, Jade!" Wicked shouted. The crowd responded with mixed comments; some players found it hilarious and smart and others found it to be cheap and dishonest. Jade knew her tactics were disrespectful, but they were not illegal. _Killer Instinct_ was as much of a mind game as it was a fighting game. WickedXWind had been in her head for far too long and now she was prying her way into his. Jade backed him into the right corner and swept at his feet. Wicked blocked low. Jade swiped again and again, repeating the strikes in a purposely slow, mocking manner, forcing him to either block or risk a counter.

' _Counter it. You know you want to.'_ Jade grit her teeth, feeling her giggles bubbling in her chest. She stopped swiping and Wicked threw out a frustrated counter, opening him for another round of punishments.

"Goddamn it!" Wicked groaned, missing another break opportunity as Jade's combo added a stronger chain. He was almost dead! Jade began jumping and swiping, acting like she wanted to finish the match quickly. Wicked predicted an additional jump, launching an uppercut, but the jump never happened. Sabrewulf waited patiently for Fulgore to land helplessly. His feet hit the ground and the claws struck his metal. Wicked tried one last time to break, but he guessed wrong, and the match ended in Jade's favor.

' _I think I've proven my point,'_ Jade told herself, catching a glimpse of Wicked's reddened face as the raucous howling drowned out his team's chants. Jade chose the default blue fur color and waited patiently for Wicked to calm down and continue. He was actually worried he would lose to WeedWolf, a player he normally dominated.

Jade made the fifth and final match of their set convincing, but she purposely threw a counter knowing he wouldn't fall for it. When Wicked won the match, he jumped up and screamed, his teammates running up to congratulate him for making it to Grand Finals. Jade quietly unplugged her arcade stick and wrapped the cord around its body.

"Hey," Wicked called out. Jade turned to him. "Good games. You really fucked with me there for a bit."

"I had to have my fun." Jade replied, holding her hand out to him. Wicked blinked, his blue eyes widening.

"Did you,"

"Good luck against Diddle. He's no joke." Jade interrupted, holding her hand higher. Wicked grabbed it gently and remained quiet through their handshake. Jade walked towards the edge of the stage and lept down, feeling the countless hands of her fans and teammates patting her arms, shoulders, back, and head.

"That was awesome! You almost brought it back!" Kagome shrieked.

"She did bring it back. She just didn't want to show off anymore." Sango corrected. Jade shushed her.

"Wait, what?" Koga asked, pushing himself between Hakkaku and another player.

"What?" Jade repeated, side-glancing at Sango, hoping she got the message.

"No, what did she just say? You didn't want to show off anymore?" Koga pressed on. He was pointing at Sango, but his intense gaze was upon Jade.

"It was a joke." Sango insisted quickly. Jade nodded, jerking her thumb in Sango's direction.

"It ain't funny." Koga stated angrily as he crossed his arms. He was still watching Jade, who was staring back, completely unaffected.

"Who made you the joke judge? I'll make whatever jokes I want about Jade." Sango argued, now stepping between the two and cutting off their eye contact. Koga frowned before pointing at her once more.

"I've known Jade way longer than you. She's under me when we are at these tournaments, so her reputation is my reputation."

"Well, last I checked," Sango began, snatching Koga's hand with hers and bending his finger back with her thumb. Koga gasped, twisting his body with the direction Sango was bending his hand. "Jade not only beat you, but she completely shut you out. It wasn't even close. I would say her reputation is just fine."

"Hey, let's all calm down," Kagome urged. Sango looked at her before sighing and relinquishing Koga's hand reluctantly.

"I am completely calm. I'm just not going to let him talk about Jade like that nor am I going to let him point at me and tell me what to do. I'm not one of his lackeys." Sango responded evenly. Koga massaged his hand gently, glancing at Jade.

"If I find out you threw this competition, you're in deep shit, Jade." Koga warned before marching off. Kagome and Sango looked at Jade, who was slipping her arcade stick into her backpack.

"Jade, what's he going to do?" Kagome asked worriedly.

"Probably cry in the bathroom, watch the video and game footage, jack-off about how cool he is...the usual." Jade responded.

"Want me to show him a real alpha?" Sango asked, slamming her fist into her palm.

"Nah."

 **000000**

Stifling a yawn with one hand, Jade tapped a key with her other to wake her computer. It was pushing past midnight and she had just returned home from assisting her teammates with cleaning the arcade room they rented for the tournament. As usual, Koga was nowhere to be found when there was cleaning to be done, but he hadn't answered his phone, either. Ginta, Hakkaku, and a few of the other Pack members she barely knew, were strangely quiet, too. They usually bitched about Koga not helping, but when she brought it up, they just nodded and resigned to accepting it.

"Hey, do you want to celebrate tomorrow?" Sango asked, knocking lightly on Jade's opened door. Jade sat up straight in her chair to look over her monitor at her friend.

"Celebrate what?"

"Um, your placement in the tournament? Third place is a big deal, isn't it?"

"Not really. I mean, I'm down with having an excuse to drink," Jade replied with a tired smile.

"Oh, I had another question," Sango stated in a quieter voice. "Did your financial aid drop yet?"

"I don't think so. I was about to check my accounts anyway. Give me a few seconds." Jade said, typing away on her keyboard. She logged onto her bank and student account, examining them side by side in separate windows. Her bank account was the same as a few days ago, but there was an alert on her student account. She clicked on the exclamation mark and leaned forward to read the smaller font.

"I don't mean to pry, but Kagome and I were getting worried since classes start in two weeks and we'll need to buy books."

"You're not prying." Jade yawned loudly. "It says here that my aid should drop into my account by Friday."

"Yeah, I just checked my account and it didn't say anything. Neither did Kagome's." Sango insisted.

"Well, that's not necessarily bad. Usually it's bad if there's a red 'X' hovering over your student status. If there's nothing, it means it hasn't been processed."

"That's true. Maybe it'll process Monday."

"Yep. Plus, you guys have some aid offered from Japan, right? It usually takes longer for international funds to process." Jade logged out of her student account and her bank account. She typed in The Pack's bank information and hit log-on. The page refreshed and alerted her in red font that stated the password didn't match.

"So, you want to celebrate tomorrow? Is that what I'm interpreting?" Sango asked. Jade frowned. She had typed the password slowly the second time, but the website told her it was wrong again.

"Uh, sure, I guess."

"What's wrong?"

"Well, I was going to make sure that the transactions for the players who won money today went through, but," Jade cut off, her brain putting two and two together. Her fellow Pack members were quiet because they were scared of tipping her off! Koga wasn't around or answering texts because he didn't want a confrontation with her!

"What is it? Did someone give the wrong amount?"

"That fucking prick kicked me off the account!" Jade shouted, standing up from her desk as her tired body revived itself with pure rage. Her face almost felt like it was on fire now.

"Koga did?" Sango's mouth dropped open. She turned away for a moment before looking back at Jade, both of her fists raised. "I knew I should have broken every bone in his hand when I had the chance!"

"Broken bones are going to be the least of his fucking problems when I'm done with him." Jade bit, dialing his number as she stormed past Sango. Kagome had heard the outbursts and was walking down the hall to check on them, but she pressed her back against the wall to let Jade pass instead.

"What's going on?" Kagome asked. Jade slid open the glass door to their patio, slamming it shut behind her. Koga's voicemail greeted her modestly and it only made the fire in her belly wilder. She re-dialed and gripped the rail with her left hand. Again, Koga's voicemail answered instead.

"We agreed that we would never kick each other off the community account. Also, you had no problem asking me to throw the tournament when I faced you, so how would me throwing it if I wanted to be any different? If you want The Pack to win a tournament, maybe you should spend less time jockin' all over my roommate and spend more time getting good! I'm a better player than you and I always will be!" Jade ended the call and almost threw her phone to exert some of the angry energy, but she gripped it powerfully after reminding herself that she needed it. Jade unlocked her phone again. That wasn't enough. She found Ginta's number and called, forcing her jaw to open so she wouldn't chip her teeth.

"Hey, what's up?" Ginta chirped.

"Did you know?" Jade asked, her tone quick and sharp as a knife.

"Um, know what?"

"Don't," Jade began, inhaling through her nose deeply. "Don't fuck with me. Did you know what Koga was going to do?"

"I, look, Jade, I didn't think he was serious,"

"And you didn't think to tell me he said he would?"

"No! Because I didn't think he would!"

"He did."

"I guessed that when I heard your tone." Ginta exhaled loudly. "He said he suspected that you threw the tournament, which is against Pack rules and against official tournament rules, so he's investigating it."

"No, throwing the tournament to allow another player to win so they can split the money with you is illegal." Jade responded slowly, her fingers rubbing her forehead steadily.

"I don't disagree with you,"

"But you don't agree."

"The Pack has rules and you allegedly violated one of our big ones."

"I assume Koga forgot to mention the part where he asked me to throw my sets with him so he could go get his ass kicked by Wicked again?"

"You assume correctly. He did not mention that." Ginta said. Jade closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

"Who else is investigating?" she continued.

"Just Koga right now."

"No, another one of our rules is that if we suspect a member of shady shit, the investigation needs to be done by the other branch leaders who were not present."

"What do you want me to do? To say?" Ginta snapped. Jade frowned, her mouth hanging open. She couldn't think of another moment in her life where she wanted to spit acid into someone's face so badly.

"I thought we were friends,"

"We are! But I'm Koga's friend, too, and I'm a Pack member, and I'm one of the branch leaders! I can't favor one side or the other!"

"But you're not even trying to rally any kind of fairness on my behalf, Ginta!"

"Jade,"

"If the tables were turned, I would contacting the other leaders to look into it for you right now!"

"I know, I know! I'm just waiting for shit to cool down first! You know how wishy-washy Koga can be! He might realize how dumb and hypocritical this is and drop it!"

"No, not after the message I just left him," Jade said.

"Well, then, it'll still be easier to handle when you guys have cooled down. Right now, we need to celebrate hosting a successful tournament and,"

"Fuck you, dude." Jade interrupted before cancelling the call. She shook her head and cursed, sitting down in one of the plastic chairs and closing her eyes.

After Jade calmed down, she walked back inside where Kagome and Sango sat on the couch, waiting for her to explain, but Jade shook her head before either roommate could ask.

"I'm tired." Jade told them, walking down the hallway and back to her room. Her phone vibrated in her hand and she glanced at it, recognizing the email. It was an official work email titled, "New Schedules."

"Oh my God. oh my God, I'm going to kill him, I'm actually going to fucking kill him," Jade was so tired and so beyond angry that her tone was calm. It didn't know how to be any more infuriated, so it defaulted to her normal tone. Koga had changed the work schedules and stripped Jade of most of her shifts, leaving her only two a week. Koga had cited new availability schedules and, "some people afraid work would interfere with studying for classes," as his reasons for changing it so suddenly. Jade turned off her phone, her computer, and her lights, crawling under her covers and deciding to glare at her ceiling quietly instead of throwing a tantrum.

' _I bet Naraku can suggest some solutions,'_ Jade thought, a smile finally appearing on her face and a quiet laugh squeezing from her throat.


	12. Confrontations

**Confrontations**

Naraku strode into the lab quietly. The door was wide open to signal the return of classes and students. He placed his black shoulder bag in his chair and walked over to Jade, who was sitting at the main table with a sketchpad open in front of her. He stood behind her, arms crossed, and waited a moment to see if she would acknowledge him, but she did not. So, he cleared his throat. Jade's pencil stopped moving and she slowly looked up at him.

"Hi." Jade said. Naraku smirked.

"I see you're drawing some of our equipment," Naraku stated, placing his hand next to her book and leaning into his hand.

"Yeah. My art prof said to draw something you look at every day, so I figured these would do." Jade explained, poking one of the glass beakers with the eraser of her pencil. Naraku leaned down and snorted.

"He probably meant that you draw it well."

"Everybody's a skeptic."

"Your shading is horrendous."

"I'm not done." Jade sighed. "Can you go bother someone else for ten minutes?"

"There is no one else." Naraku replied, showcasing the otherwise-empty lab with his hand.

"I can't draw with you standing over me."

"Ah, a self-conscious Jade. I haven't seen that for a minute." Naraku cooed, stroking her cheek with a single finger before walking back to his desk.

"I'm humble." Jade said, returning to her sketch. Naraku arched an eyebrow before turning back to her.

"Learn to be arrogant. You and your work are a reflection of me." he said back. For a moment, he saw her jaw clench and her hand tighten around her pencil, but she immediately relaxed afterwards.

' _She has been rather touchy about certain things,'_ Naraku sat on the edge of his desk, crossing one arm and resting his other on it to stroke his chin. She hid it well, but something had been bothering Jade for the past couple of weeks and Naraku knew that for once, he wasn't the source of it. He only reminded her of the source. She had been oddly curious as of late; asking questions about chemicals that had reputations for being, "prank chemicals." That tipped Naraku off about a possible revenge streak in Jade that he thought was mostly nonexistent. Her strikes against him were passive and quiet, but rock solid; very much Jade. He didn't think she had it in her to cause any kind of physical revenge, no matter how harmless it was.

' _I wonder if she put the violet back,'_ Naraku walked over to a cabinet beside the fume hood and opened it, kneeling down to see if the previously-missing dye had been returned yet. Naraku grinned when he found it placed in the exact spot it sat before it went missing.

"Bruce will be happy to know our gentian violet has returned." Naraku announced, pulling the bottle from the cabinet and turning to Jade, wiggling it to draw her attention to him. She looked up from her assignment and stared back at him, then stared at the bottle, and then looked him dead in the eyes.

"I had no idea we had it." Jade replied calmly. Naraku's smile widened as he snickered.

' _She is such a treat sometimes.'_ he admitted.

"Really? Bruce didn't ask you about it?"

"Nope." Jade said.

"Ah." Naraku placed the bottle back in the cabinet, rising to his feet and closing the door gently. "You see, one of the biology professors ran out and asked Bruce if we had any. Bruce said yes, looked, and realized it was gone."

"Oooookay?" Jade held her hand up as if to say instead, "I care because?" Naraku walked to the end of the table, leaning forward onto it.

"We rarely use it, so it was strange for it to be gone, and we just ordered chemical refills a week ago. It was there when I checked and gone after Bruce sent the order."

"I feel like you're reaching your point soon," Jade was listening to him attentively, but she gave no hints to what was going on in her mind. She dropped her pencil and placed her hands in her lap, giving her undivided attention.

"Bruce accused me of using it on someone, naturally."

"I don't know what it is, Naraku." Jade insisted. He walked around to her and leaned down towards her face.

"Oh, I think you do. You're not dumb."

"You guys put way too much faith into my intelligence." Jade said with a small laugh, shaking her head and looking back down at her sketch. Naraku stared a moment longer.

' _No. She's looking at her left hand.'_ he realized. Jade's hand sat in her lap with both legs bobbing anxiously. Naraku side-stepped behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders, chuckling softly. He kept his right hand on her shoulder and reached down into her lap for her left hand with his. He felt her body turn hard as steel when he grasped it. Naraku pulled it up and twisted it stiffly. On the side, right at the base of her pinky, was a rich purple stain.

"Do we?" he whispered into her ear before releasing her hand and shoulder. He gave her two light pats on her back before walking back to his desk. The room fell silent, except for the light chatter flowing from down the hallway.

"I didn't use much." Jade said, her voice breaking the silence. "I didn't know Bruce accused you, though."

"I don't mind. I think it's funny." Naraku replied, now rummaging through his bag behind his desk. "I am curious, though. What would you need the violet for?"

"Revenge." she stated candidly. Naraku looked up and nodded. His intuition hadn't failed him after all.

"I am strangely proud of you right now."

"Well, stop that. I don't like that I did it." Jade frowned and stared down at the floor.

"Why? It's a harmless substance."

"I don't like that I went that low." Jade corrected.

"But you did." Naraku said, smiling and pointing at her. Jade nodded, and then she suddenly flinched and blinked.

"Why am I talking to you about this? Whatever." Jade whined, turning back in her seat to continue working on her sketching assignment.

"I won't tell Bruce, by the way." Naraku told her.

"I will today before he goes home." Jade grumbled. It was Naraku's turn to flinch.

"You are difficult to figure out sometimes."

"You're one to talk."

"Indeed." Naraku placed his hands on his hips after finding the paper he was looking for. "Should I be merciful to our students today or no?"

"A lot of them probably haven't received their aid to buy their lab manuals yet."

"That sounds like a yes."

"It is, but only because it will be way more annoying trying to teach an experiment when a chunk of the students don't have a manual."

"Fair enough." Naraku agreed. That gave him another week to plan out a better torture for the first experiment, anyway. He grabbed his paper and walked out of the room, reminding Jade to meet him in an hour for the class.

' _I have a one in seventeen chance of Bruce being in his office.'_ Naraku thought irritably. He could have emailed the schedule to him, but his professor probably would have claimed it got lost in his spam folder just to spite him.

"Hey, Naraku. What do you need?" the department secretary, Susan, asked when he walked through the doorway.

"Is Bruce in his office?" Naraku asked, looking towards the narrow hallway where the Chemistry professors' offices were located.

"Probably not." Susan sighed, flipping a strand of her blonde hair back. "Do you need me to give something to him?"

"No." Naraku replied, his eyes darting to the supplies room. He strode to the door, pulling his keys out and finding the one that unlocked the room.

"I heard you are teaching a class this semester," Susan called out with a giggle. Naraku rolled his eyes as he flipped the light switch on.

"Not because I want to," he replied, checking the shelves. The room was so unorganized it was already driving him insane. What was so difficult about dedicating one shelf to measuring instruments, another to crayons and colored pencils, another to paper, and so on?

"Because Bruce wanted you to."

"Bruce wants many things." Naraku retorted, closing the door behind him before walking down the narrow hallway towards Bruce's office. He opened the rubber cement jar and painted a dick with the sticky substance on Bruce's door before slapping the paper onto the door. Naraku decided to exit the hallway towards the back to avoid talking to the secretary again.

 **000000**

With her lab coat on, Jade sat on a stool at the head of the classroom, which was wide and held four fume hoods instead of a single one like most of the research labs. It also had six different islands with multiple drawers, computers, and stools for students to sit on. When she took the class with Sango, her lab was held in the room across the hall, but it looked identical to this one, which helped with her memory of where to find certain items. Jade had found the only metal stool in the room and it allowed her to spin the seat, so she spun herself, waiting patiently.

' _Naraku will be here in about two minutes on the dot.'_ Jade thought humorously after briefly stopping her spin cycle due to being dizzy.

And there he was, two minutes later, walking in from the door on the left side of the classroom. He was carrying a half-eaten salad and wearing his shoulder bag over his lab coat. He glanced at Jade before raising an eyebrow. Jade prepared herself for a rude comment.

"Do you own any professional attire?" he asked, taking a large bite of salad and catching a falling slice of tomato with his fork.

"I was told I didn't have to." Jade huffed, slowly spinning herself again.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Show me on your body where I hurt you, Naraku." Jade giggled, abruptly stopping her spinning once more. Naraku stared back at her silently for a moment, studying her.

"When we go to conferences," he began slowly.

"Was it your butt? Did I hurt your butt?" Jade interrupted quickly. Naraku closed his eyes, keeping his lips closed as he held back a laugh.

"Dressing professionally works wonders, is my point."

"It was your butt. I'm sorry about your butt."

"The more you speak, the more I'm going to remember this when you're trapped with me for days at a time."

"Oh, pleeeeeeease. I'm already a target because I'm your assistant. This changes nothing!" Jade said, raising her hands above her head and waving them dramatically.

"That isn't necessarily true. I was debating going easier on you because you are my assistant." Naraku replied, dropping his fork into the empty salad container and snapping the lid shut.

"Who do you think you're foolin', bruh?" Jade turned her seat when Naraku nodded in the direction behind her. Jade tilted her head to the side when a young student walked in. She was relatively short, shorter than Jade, with dyed pink and blue hair pulled into pigtails and wearing bright, mismatched clothing ranging from purple pants, to pink shoes, to a blue shirt, and a white jacket with black paw prints all over it. The rainbow girl chose the spot closest to the door she walked through and placed her notebook down to claim it.

"Hello," Jade called out, waving when the girl looked up. When Jade saw the girl's eyes grow wide, she began hoping, almost praying, that this girl didn't know WeedWolf. The rainbow girl gasped before she bolted out of the room and Jade's mouth fell open as she frowned, slowly turning the stool seat to look at Naraku, who was wearing his own confused expression on his face.

"I'm...what." Naraku said quietly. Jade pointed in the direction the girl ran to.

"Have you threatened her before?" she asked.

"No, sadly." Naraku replied.

"I better never hear another word from you about my fashion choices."

"Consider my previous comments eaten."

Jade continued spinning in the stool, stopping occasionally when more students would walk in. Each island could hold six students and according to the roster, it was a full class. Jade tried not to pay attention to the island in the back left corner of the room. It was a group of, "dudes," as they introduced themselves, and Jade already caught them giving her double and triple takes. They were whispering amongst themselves, one hissing, "Yes it is!" and another hissing back, "There's no way!"

' _Fuuuuuuuuck. They know me.'_ Jade realized. At any other time in any other place, Jade wouldn't have cared. But in this room with Naraku? She hoped the dudes would stick to howling instead of shouting out her nickname. Her eyes caught movement at the door and Jade saw Kagome rushing in, choosing the seat next to the rainbow chick, who had yet to make eye contact with anyone. Jade wanted to call out to her, to tell her, "No, don't sit there," but any movement other than spinning in the stool would draw Naraku's attention. Kagome waved and Jade waved back, working it in with a spin to hide it from Naraku, who was currently clicking around on the computer at the front desk.

"Let's get started." Naraku announced, standing up slowly. He walked around from the desk, waiting for the idle chatter to disappear completely. One final student ran into the room, spotting his fellow dudes and jogging back to the last empty chair of the dude group. The guys immediately leaned towards him, pointing at Jade, who quickly kicked off one last, wild spin in the stool, hoping it would confuse them long enough for Naraku to start talking. Naraku, however, reached out and grabbed Jade's arms, forcefully keeping her and the stool stable as he exhaled sharply.

"You're driving me insane." Naraku said sternly.

"Why didn't you say something fifteen minutes ago?" Jade asked, shrugging his hands from her body as she stood up.

"I assumed you would have been dizzy enough to knock yourself out by now."

"Boy," Jade stopped, pulling her index finger back into her fist and lowering it to her side. She had just realized the entire class was graveyard-silent. She cleared her throat took a single step backwards, putting Naraku at the front of the class.

"I assume each of you are here because of an unfathomable love for science. Anything less is an insult to me. My name is Naraku. I am currently working on my Master's, so you may call me, "Master.""

"He really likes it when you call him, "Lab Daddy," though." Jade announced with a wide smile. The class erupted into giggles and snorts. Naraku slowly looked back at Jade, and although his expression was calm, she saw her imagined death previewing in his eyes.

"If I hear anyone calling me that, the nicest thing I will do is instantly fail you." Naraku said sharply, now resting his fists inside his lab coat pockets. He paused and frowned when he heard someone cry, "Oh my God," softly. The class turned their heads to the dudes' table. Jade mouthed, "Fuck me," when she realized the last student who walked into the room was now covering his mouth with one hand, pointing at her with the other, and sobbing.

"Oh my God," he cried out again. "It's really her! It's WeedWolf!"

' _FUUUUUUUUCK!'_ Jade tried to keep herself together, but she could feel the panic she was holding in leaking out of her eyes. Or maybe it was tears of frustration?

"What is," Naraku trailed off, looking back at Jade, who was frozen in place, staring at the sobbing student. He looked back at the student and tilted his head.

"You're my hero, WeedWolf! Your videos helped me through some dark times," the dude said, sniffing and wiping tears from his face.

' _Your crying just put me through some dark times.'_ Jade inhaled deeply. She heard Naraku repeat, "WeedWolf," questioningly while staring at her. She ignored him as she walked towards her fan, holding her hand out to him.

"Thanks, dude. I'm glad you enjoy them." Jade said. He grabbed her hand shakily and was now smiling and laughing, thanking her for all the laughs she gave him and for acknowledging him. She nodded and high-fived the remaining dudes at the table, glancing over at Kagome and mouthing, "Fuck me," once more. Kagome's smile was already awkward and it stretched into a grimace before she mouthed, "Sorry," in response.

"Who are you?" someone from the other side of the room called out.

"Uh, I'm Jade. I'm the teaching assistant." Jade responded meekly, slowly trudging to the front of the room. She looked up and froze when she saw the projector was turned on. Shining on the wall was a Google search showing her YouTube channel.

"You couldn't come up with a better name?" Naraku asked, leaning out from behind the monitor.

"It's a thing from a long time ago." Jade threw her hand up and let it drop immediately. She cringed when the dudes began howling softly to one another. Jade heard a click and sighed heavily when she the giggling of her fellow Pack members begin echoing through the room's speakers. The camera showing her face slowly minimized to the corner, revealing the character customization screen of a game.

"That idea is so dumb! Shut up!" Koga spat in the background.

"You're dumb!" Hakkaku retorted.

"Both of you shut up. I'm concentrating." Jade said.

"Big tits, big ass, as little clothing as possible," Koga ordered. The video cut to a black screen as the very 80s song, "All She Wants to do is Dance," began playing. The title, "Bait and Bounce," faded onto the screen and then disappeared as the game screen faded in behind it.

"The idea is to make a super attractive character, probably a chick, wear little amounts of clothing, attract players' attentions, and then have your bros drop in and bounce 'em." Jade's voice explained as the video camera slowly circled the attractive blonde woman character she created. "Choose a place that seems harmless, but that you can utilize to your advantage. We will be using bridges." The camera now spanned slowly across a bridge hanging over a deep valley and the sun in the background was eclipsed. "As you can see, my character is equipped with no armor, little clothing, and she wields no serious weapons, so she is pretty harmless." The woman character waved and the camera quickly spun around, revealing three large, heavily armored men dressed in black, and all carrying huge weapons. "They aren't, however."

The class began laughing as each armored man took a different stance and their nicknames appeared overhead. The one wielding a giant hammer was named, "Hammertime" and he was hopping from one foot the other, seemingly having a great time. The one holding a huge spear and wearing a large feathered mane was named, "Furry Boi," and he clapped calmly. The last one with a large greatsword strapped to his back was named, "Frodo T-baggins," and he stood in a 'Y' formation as Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku all grunted and growled in the background.

The video cut to the woman standing towards one end of the bridge. The 80s dance music faded back in as the woman began dancing, making the 'Y' formation, and waving as two other armored players approached her. The camera zoomed up on the chat room in the bottom left corner where Jade, going by the name, "Victorious Secret," had typed, "Heyyyyyyyyy boys!" One began clapping while the other took the 'Y' stance.

"Eh, I don't like these guys." Jade's voice cut in. Immediately, the music switched to a heavy metal song as her three bodyguards ran and rolled into the screen. The two invading players drew their weapons, but were stunned by lightning bolts and both kicked off the bridge, falling to their deaths.

Again, the class laughed and some students clapped. Even Jade was smiling. She remembered how fun the Bait and Bounce episodes were. The video jump-cut to another bridge, now playing the dance song again. The blonde was strutting around, waving, forming the 'Y' and clapping. A group of three showed up, stared, and then sat down, holding their hands up as if toasting her.

"Keep these guys. I like them." Video Jade announced. The content sped up, showing more players arriving, then sitting and toasting or dancing.

"We have a plan. Keep dancing." Ginta said. The camera showing Jade's face in the corner appeared as she began dancing in her seat, lipping along with the song playing.

"Go, go, go, go!" Koga shouted. The 80s dancing song immediately shifted into a fast-paced thrash metal song as the three bodyguards, dressed in matching bulky, silver armor came rolling onto the bridge from both ends. Some of the invading players noticed them and stood up, pulling out their weapons to fight, but it was too late. As the guitar riff of the song kicked in, the three bodyguards began spinning, swinging long, giant axes, creating three tornadoes of blood and screaming as players were either killed, pushed off the bridge, or had accidentally rolled off the sides trying to avoid the blades. The camera faded out as The Pack's laughter drowned out the music and the video showed music credits before ending completely.

"Do you make money doing that kind of stuff?" a girl asked after the video ended.

"Uh, kind of. It depends. It isn't enough to live off of, if that's what you mean." Jade answered, her fingers tapping a nervous beat on her thighs as she stood in front of everyone.

"Well, that was one way to kill five minutes," Naraku announced, turning the projector off and walking around the desk to stand next to Jade. "We'll talk about this later." he said to her in a low voice.

"Should we go over the rules?" Jade asked him, deciding to ignore his statement. Naraku rolled his eyes.

"You can pass out the syllabus," Naraku said, pointing to the stack of papers on the desk.

"You got it, Lab Daddy." Jade replied as the class giggled again. She could almost feel Naraku's imaginary daggers in her back.

"The class is scheduled to be nearly three hours long, but not every experiment will take that long and some experiments will take multiple class periods. The questions for each experiment will be due at the beginning of class the following week and if you're going to cheat, at least try to change the wording of your sentences." Naraku explained, crossing his arms and watching Jade as she counted out the papers.

"Complete sentences, please." Jade chirped. Naraku pointed at her.

"Yes. I don't want you to write a novel as a response, but I also want you to put forth effort."

"Can we draw pictures to help answer the questions?" one of the dudes asked.

"As long as it pertains to the experiment, why not? If I see a dick on your assignment, it's going to mysteriously disappear from the gradebook." Naraku said, holding his hand out to take the extra copies of the syllabus from Jade, who stood next to him. He frowned at her and held the papers in front of her face, silently urging her to take them again. Jade did and held her hand up.

"What's your deal?" she asked under her breath.

"I'm not holding those for you." Naraku answered. Jade rolled her eyes and tossed the stack onto the desk before crossing her own arms.

"Groups?"

"I'm getting there, WeedWolf. Quit distracting me." Naraku bit.

"Fine." Jade walked to the stool and sat down on it, immediately spinning herself. Naraku stared for a moment, in slight disbelief of how she was acting.

"You can and will work in groups of three. You will write your group members' names on your assignments so we can be sure that all of you have the same data."

"Can we choose our groups?" a tall kid asked. Naraku looked up for a moment, inhaling deeply.

"You chose them when you sat down next to those people." Naraku said.

"Does it really matter if they switch around, though?" Jade asked him skeptically.

"Go back to your spinning." Naraku ordered. "Quietly."

"What if we have to miss a class for an emergency or if another class requires us to be at a meeting?" Kagome asked suddenly, her hand in the air. Naraku turned his head to her and blinked.

"If you know it's coming ahead of time, tell me and you can go to one of the various other labs held within the week. As for the emergency? It depends on that emergency."

"Whaaaaat? Who would want to miss this class?" Jade asked sarcastically, pointing to herself.

"You're not necessary today. Go finish rinsing out my samples." Naraku ordered calmly. Jade stood up, waiting for Naraku to change his mind, but when he motioned for her to go ahead, Jade shrugged and walked to the door.

"Cool. Bye." Jade waved and to Naraku's displeasure, most of the class waved back.

' _Clever, clever girl. She's using them as her back-up against me.'_ Naraku stifled a yawn with his fist.

"Any other questions?" Naraku quizzed, his eyes slowly scanning the classroom.

"What's yo number?" a young woman asked from the right, but everyone began laughing and true to student code, no one outed her out. Naraku smirked, but he felt like his insides were burning. He dismissed the class and shoved his hands into his pockets, his right hand fingers twisting and turning the gem impatiently.

 **000000**

"Koga sent you a text." Sango announced, wiggling Jade's phone. Jade was behind the living room TV, tangled between some cords. Her head popped up over the TV.

"Three-five-six-five is my passcode. Text, "Piss off," to him, please." Jade said before leaning back down to finish rearranging the cables and cords.

"Don't you want to know what he said first?"

"Unless he's apologizing and admitting that he's a hypocrite, I don't care. Knowing him like I do, he didn't do either of those things."

"Well, you're right about that." Sango said, typing in Jade's code and Jade's reply. "Alright. Sent." Sango saw the reply, "Piss off," several times above the one she just sent and began giggling.

"What?" Jade asked, tying her set of cords together with a plastic tie so it wouldn't look like an explosion of electronics occurred around the TV.

"I just saw your replies to his recent texts,"

"Oh, yeah, I like to be consistent." Jade gently lifted the TV and placed it back in its original spot. She wiped her hands on her pants and walked over to the couch where her laptop waited for her. She woke it up and began reading the chat room comments. It was the usual discussion of which players were top tier or which were expected to be at this tournament or that.

"Alright. Kagome said she's going to be a little late." Sango announced, checking her phone when the flute note played.

"That's okay. I won't be playing first anyway." Jade responded, clicking the sign-in button.

"Alright." Sango said, watching Jade type a message to someone. It only took a few seconds for them to reply and Jade's head bobbed slightly as she read the response, as if she was hearing a beat.

"Cool. I like this guy. He's solid." Jade stated, clapping her hands together before typing a response.

"Why?"

"His name is Royal and he usually holds online tournaments with money prizes for different fighting games. He just told me that whoever knocks Koga out gets a bonus. He said he disagrees with how he's handling things recently, specifically the WeedWolf ordeal."

"Aren't...you WeedWolf?"

"I am, but this guy doesn't know I'm me. He thinks I'm some random player."

"Oh?" Sango grinned approvingly. "You're clever when it comes to this stuff."

"I knew better than to think Koga wouldn't go on some dumb shit with me eventually, so I made this account years ago and have been keeping up with it on the side."

"I just don't understand why he's doing this to you. It's no secret that I don't like him, but I was under the impression you two were great, long-time friends."

"We are...were, I guess." Jade shook her head and glanced down at her lap. "He's always been jealous."

"Of you?"

"Of everyone. I spend my time getting good. He thinks his talent alone is enough, but gets angry when someone outshines him because they worked harder."

"So he takes it out on you because he's ranked higher."

"Yep. He's my boss and my team leader." Jade exhaled abruptly, grabbing her phone and holding it up. "He probably texted me about this tournament, asking me to come represent The Pack, even though he's trying to convince the whole community that I don't care about The Pack."

"I'm not taking his side, but you did throw the competition. You said you wanted to go to the World Cup, not take The Pack to the World Cup." Sango said. She saw Jade stop and look away for a moment, giving thought to her point.

"I totally did. I've been speaking hypothetically when I do speak to them about it,"

"But you're dancing around it because you know it's against the rules."

"It's against some dumb-ass rule that I was against when it was established and I was outvoted by one. If it was such a big deal, Koga never would have asked me to throw the tournament to benefit his personal image. He wasn't thinking about The Pack, either. That doesn't make me right, but that doesn't give him the moral high-ground, either."

"That's true. So, are you going to be kicked from the team?"

"I doubt it."

"Do you want to be?"

"What? No! The Pack is my brain child! Koga and the others helped, yeah, but it was my idea to recruit people for different types of games! It was my idea to install branch leaders so they could operate separately! The finances, sending equipment to other members, the graphics used in our chatrooms and in most of our videos are mine! I edit a chunk of our videos and I taught people in other branches how to edit! Whenever there's a technical issue, I'm the one people call!"

"Jade, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you." Sango interrupted soothingly.

"You didn't. I've been pissed for a couple of weeks now." Jade sighed while rubbing her head.

"I know. I also know Koga cut your hours. Don't worry about rent, alright? Kagome and I are able to,"

"I'm fine with rent. I'm not playing this tournament for the money. I'm playing this tournament out of spite...and for the money."

"So, are you going to win?" Sango asked excitedly. Jade laughed and shrugged.

"I don't know, but I'm going to give it a shot."

"Wait! Won't they be able to tell? Recognize your style or whatever?" Sango asked quickly, tapping invisible buttons with her fingers. Jade smirked while grabbing the remote for the TV.

"I have another secret,"

Sango clapped excitedly when Jade chose the accessories menu after launching the game. Jade chose Spinal and she saw Sango frown.

"I didn't see anyone play him at the other tournament."

"Yeah. Spinal is stupid-good. He just requires effort." Jade retorted, slowly flicking her arcade stick to show Sango the different colors the skeleton could be.

"Is his shield made from a squid?"

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure it's Cthulhu."

"So, what's his story?"

"Uh, he can't die, and he really likes fighting. He steals people's stuff."

"I see he has the pirate theme going on." Sango said, glancing at the laptop. "I assume AlphaWolf is Koga?"

"Yeah. Ginta is SilverWolf." Jade had accepted the invite to the tournament party, but she kept her microphone and cameras off, despite multiple players, including Koga, urging the, "newcomer," to speak. The first set of the online tournament was broadcasting on the TV, so Jade was more focused on her other potential opponents than her fellow teammates that she already knew she could beat.

"I see Ginta. He isn't very talkative."

"He can go gobble some cocks."

"Alright, alright, he sucks." Sango laughed. Truthfully, she didn't think much of Ginta. "Uh oh, Koga is asking you a question,"

"What's the question?" Jade prompted, her eyes never leaving the TV.

"He's asking what tournaments you've played in before because your tag is familiar."

"Tell him it's my first and that I play online a lot."

"So passive." Sango sighed heavily.

"I'm trying to be discreet, Sango."

"He said Spinal still has no good wake-ups against Sabrewulf and asked what you'll do about that...I think he's taunting you."

"Tell him he'll have to knock me down for that to be a problem."

"Hah! Now people are telling him to eat shit."

Sango placed the laptop on the table, leaning back to enjoy the matches with Jade, who was studying the players' tactics closely. She would call out the types of moves, call out when she would break or if she would let the combo finish to be safe, and she would point out when players seemed to rely on a certain set-up or attack. Both Jade and Sango turned their heads when the apartment door opened, Kagome walking in and waving at them.

"Sorry! I tried to leave earlier, but this guy wouldn't stop talking. He was nice, but man." Kagome exhaled and fanned her face with her hand lightly.

"It's alright. Jade hasn't played yet, anyway." Sango answered.

"Awesome. I'm going to go change. It's so humid outside that my sweat is sweating." Kagome breathed, walking back to her room. She returned within a couple of minutes, wearing a white tank top and short jean shorts.

"Kagome, can you grab me a bottle of water, please?" Sango called out.

"Grab me a beer, please." Jade added.

"Don't drink before your match!" Sango scolded her.

"I drink when I play all the tiiiiiiiiime!" Jade whined.

"Let her have her magical liquid, Sango. One beer won't hurt." Kagome insisted, walking back with two water bottles and Jade's beer.

"The funny part is you thinking I'm going to have just one,"

"Well, unless you can summon more out of thin air, that one is the only one we have left." Kagome replied before taking a drink of water.

"Shit. I forgot to buy more." Jade groaned.

"Serves you right, smart-ass." Sango snipped.

After a few more matches, it was finally Jade's turn. She placed her feet on the floor and held her arcade stick in her lap. She was giddy after finding out her opponent was Ginta. She wanted to knock Koga out more than anyone, but Ginta could be the appetizer for now. When they entered the character selection screen, Jade chose the Spinal she liked best; dark purple. She thought the ghostly green energy from his moves accented it nicely and it was a nice shout out to her favorite colors.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What?" Kagome said loudly, expecting Jade to choose her usual werewolf.

"Oh yeah, Jade knows other characters." Sango giggled, now reading the chat room discussions. Koga was describing how Sabrewulf's moves overwhelmed Spinal, but other players were commenting on Spinal's recent updates.

"He's creepy." Kagome stated after Spinal rose from the ground through a ghostly green portal. All of his bones and weapons hooked together like they were magnetized and he let out a shrill roar. Ginta's albino Sabrewulf leapt into view, roaring dominantly in return. The match began and Spinal ran forward, laughing maniacally. Sabrewulf leapt forward to swipe him, but Spinal dove back into his teleport, appearing right behind the werewolf, slashing him with his sword. The skeleton continued to hit the werewolf with his sword, shield, and even summoned a giant skull arm to punch him.

"Wow." Sango choked out. The beatdown continued well into the second round of the first match and Jade gave the final hit, punching Ginta's werewolf into the sky with a giant, green skeleton fist as the announcer screamed, "Ultra," followed by growling, "Perfect!"

"Woo! Sorry, not sorry, Ginta!" Jade laughed.

"He didn't get to touch you once," Kagome pointed out, her mouth wide open.

The second match began and Ginta was able to hit Jade first, but she broke his combo immediately. Sango and Kagome laughed and gasped every time the skeleton cackled or teleported away just to run back and start slapping the werewolf around. Magical purple skulls were bouncing across the screen horizontally and vertically, high and low, forcing Ginta to do nothing but block. Jade would reabsorb skulls just to shoot them out again. When the werewolf whimpered from being struck, the skeleton slid into him, finishing him off and cackling about it afterwards.

"I deserve this beer." Jade stated proudly, chugging the rest of it victoriously.

"If you win this tournament, I'll buy you a case of that beer." Sango told her. She held her hand out to Jade. Jade stared at it and took it, nodding in agreement.

"Do online tournaments take as long as real life tournaments?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Oh, no. Online tournaments are faster. This one will take about three hours whereas the the in-person one a couple of weeks ago took all day. Bigger tournaments are usually two-day events." Jade explained, placing her arcade stick on the table and motioning for her laptop. Sango handed it over and yawned.

"Good. I'm already getting tired." she said.

"So, Jade, about that lab instructor guy," Kagome began slowly, watching her roommate's eyes widen.

"Yeaaaaaaah?" Jade sang hesitantly.

"Does he have a thing for you or was I reading that interaction between you two all wrong?" Kagome asked bluntly. Jade had pressed her head and back into the couch so hard with shock and disgust that she was sure the material melded with her flesh.

"You watched that and interpreted that he has a thing for me?" Jade asked back with her eyes shut tightly, her voice soft and worried.

"Well, I mean, some guys act rude to girls they like because they don't know how to handle it." Kagome insisted.

"No, I'm pretty sure he acts rude to me because he likes being rude." Jade said.

"How so? Is it that guy with the wavy black hair?" Sango asked. Jade nodded to her.

"Yeah! He grabbed her because she was spinning around on the stool!" Kagome told Sango, whose expression darkened as she stared back at Jade.

"He has no right to touch you!" Sango snapped.

"To be fair, I was being pretty annoying," Jade replied, holding both hands up.

"That's no excuse to grab you!"

"No, but he," Jade stopped for a moment to think, exhaling through her nose. "He doesn't know how to communicate with his words."

"I can't believe you're making excuses for him," Sango said exasperatingly.

"I think I kind of understand what she means, though, Sango." Kagome added quickly.

"I'm not condoning anything Naraku does; I'm explaining why he does it. I let a lot of the things he does go because I'm pretty sure he doesn't know how else to be." Jade explained, raising her voice above the other two voices when they began debating. Sango slowly rubbed her face with both hands, pushing and pulling it into dramatic expressions.

"You think his problem is more of a nurture issue than a nature one?" Kagome continued, leaning forward with an interested gaze. Jade closed her eyes, shaking her head and smiling.

"I'm sure it's both. It's hard to punish him or get revenge on him because he likes that stuff. He wants people to retaliate. So, I pick and choose what I react to. I've found that giving him nothing works best."

"Jade, why do you put up with these types of guys?" Sango whined. "I mean, you put up with Koga, who takes his jealousy out on you, and now this guy, Naraku, who is physically grabbing you and I can only imagine what else he does that you've failed to mention the entire summer you've been working with him."

"Um, Sango, really?" Kagome asked with a knowing tone, her eyebrows raised suspiciously. Sango's mouth dropped open when she realized what Kagome was insinuating.

"N-No, that's different! He's different!" Sango argued back, holding up her finger to stop any further comments.

"How? Miroku isn't violent about it, but he has done it."

"Done what?" Jade asked, blinking a few times. She recognized the name, "Miroku." She had seen it pop up on Sango's phone and heard her mention him. She figured she was dating the guy, but she had no idea who he was.

' _Kagome knows, though. I guess she'll handle this.'_ Jade realized. She cared for Sango and her opinions, but she was exhausting to argue with because she held her ground fiercely.

"Miroku gropes women sometimes. Usually when he drinks or when we're all dancing together." Kagome revealed. Jade blinked and scratched her head, a thoughtful look appearing on her face.

"He hasn't done it in a long time! He stopped!" Sango argued.

"But he has done it and you let it go. Why can't Jade do that?" Kagome asserted, motioning towards Jade with her hand, who began giggling.

"Please, Naraku won't stop. I'm aware of what's going on." Jade insisted.

"See? It's different!" Sango blurted out. "What does he have over you? Why are you letting him, and Koga for that matter, walk all over you?"

"Koga hangs himself when he does this shit. Naraku, on the other hand, is smarter and I'm pretty sure he likes being choked out, so I'm still trying to figure out what to do with him. In the meantime, he has paid me for my suffering."

"What?" Sango and Kagome almost shrieked. They looked at each other with their mouths open and then turned to Jade, who shrugged with a bashful grin.

"Yep. Not only am I being paid for being the general lab assistant, but I'm also being paid for being the teaching assistant for Kagome's class, and I'm additionally being paid by Naraku to help him with his research and call him, "Lab Daddy," because it bothers him. I'm not powerless in this."

"I should have known he dangled some cash above your head." Sango groaned as she shook her head with disbelief.

"Sooooo what? You're just a plaything to him and he's a money source to you?" Kagome asked.

"That and he might be my new weed dealer now that Koga has pulled this recent stunt with me." Jade answered quickly before erupting into laughter upon seeing her roommate's pained and appalled expressions.

"What is this guy? He works out religiously, he's a chemistry student, he's a dealer," Sango listed off, holding up a finger for each descriptor.

"He also takes different chemicals and jewelry and extracts stuff so that he has pure gold, silver, platinum, what have you, to take to jewelry stores for cash. He showed me that one last week. I might actually try it out myself." Jade added. Sango stared back with her mouth slightly ajar. She then held up all of her fingers and made an explosion gesture around her head.

"That's actually really resourceful." Kagome admitted in a small voice.

"That's actually your first lab experiment; using a copper wire to extract silver from silver nitrate." Jade chirped, holding up a finger.

"Awesome."

"I'll hold off on kicking his ass, then." Sango grumbled.

"You'd be wasting your time anyway. He'd probably like it." Jade said.

"Ugh."

 **000000**

"What is my opinion on anime fanservice video games? I don't know. What do you think my opinion is of AIDS?" Jade asked sarcastically. Naraku snorted as he bent down to pick up the dumbbells to continue his arm curls. He decided to give some of Jade's videos a listen, specifically the ones where she reviewed games and answered questions. Not because he cared about the content, but because he wanted to see the depths of her speaking abilities. Jade was going to have to tag along with him to conferences and she needed to be able to speak well, intelligently, and confidently. He knew she was intelligent, though she often tried to downplay it for reasons unknown to him. When she wasn't using her, "bro-isms," she was a fine speaker and was oddly charismatic despite being low-energy with her delivery. It was her lack of confidence that bothered him. She had the confidence to speak and play games live for thousands of people, and to attend and perform at tournaments in front of hundreds, yet she had already claimed in two of the five videos he listened to that she had a hard time speaking to crowds.

"Anyway, I went on another tirade. Basically, play _Dark Souls_ over fanservice bullshit. Please." Jade begged. "Which brings me to my next point; _Dark Souls_ is some home-grown bullshit. If you have anger management issues, fairness complexes, or heart conditions, don't play any of the _Dark Souls_ games, or _Bloodborne_ , and especially _Demon's Souls_. I still get triggered every time someone mentions that game."

' _Hm. Sounds like my kind of game.'_ Naraku admitted, debating if he should watch her videos of the games she mentioned...especially the one that she claimed triggered her. Naraku almost smiled at the thought of finding something in these videos to use against her or at least bother her with. The only problem was that she had thousands of videos. Her channel had been active for five years, so the odds of finding said content in videos that she edited were slim.

After finishing his curls and bench press sets, Naraku pocketed his phone and earbuds and wiped the station down with a hand towel and vinegar water. He perked up when he heard two voices, one whiny and one belligerent, firing back and forth at each other. He could tell they were trying to settle their disagreement quietly, but whatever they were arguing about, it was too passionate of a subject to keep quiet. As their voices began to rise, Naraku decided to turn around just to see if one of them would finally snap and hit the other. He instantly recognized the black ponytail and short silver hair of the two men he usually saw working out around the same time he did.

"This is so dumb! Don't you see what's going on?" the silver-haired man whined, his hands placed on his hips and gripping them powerfully.

"See what? Enlighten me, oh wise branch leader," the black ponytailed man replied sarcastically, plopping down on the bench with his hands gripping the bench press bar.

"No one likes how you're handling this. No one. All you're going to do is convince her that the grass is greener and she'll leave."

"She won't leave. You're insane. Now, spot me," the man with the ponytail ordered, swinging around to position himself. Naraku saw the massive rich purple blotch on his left cheek and the realization hit him like a truck. He couldn't stop himself. The laughter filled his belly and chest, bursting from his mouth like a dam breaking loose. It wasn't quiet, either. Not only did the two bickering men look at him, but most of the people in that half of the gym stared, too. Naraku covered his mouth with his hand. His laughter continued and the man with the ponytail and purple blotch on his face glared back at him when their eyes met.

"Yeah? What's your problem, pretty boy?" the purple-faced man barked. The silver-haired one groaned a curse and slapped his hand against his face.

"Pretty boy?" Naraku repeated gleefully. "Is that jealousy I hear?"

"Jealousy of what? Being a virgin? What's so funny?" the man asked again, now standing. Naraku walked forward, chuckling lightly.

"I'm sure the ladies are just crawling all over you. Though, it looks like one was less than amused with your antics." Naraku replied, pointing at his face. The red blush shone onto the man's skin almost instantly, except through the purple stain, but the embarrassment did not quell his rage.

"Oh yeah? What do you know?" he spat back.

"Uh, Koga," the silver-haired one called out, his eyes wide. Naraku glanced at him, wondering what realization had grabbed ahold of him, but he looked back at the one named, "Koga," to see if he would throw a punch like Naraku hoped he would.

"Shut up, Ginta! I'm about to show Pretty Boy some manners," Koga said with a grin. Naraku answered the grin with his own.

"Oh, please do." Naraku urged. "I'm sure Jade will be happy to hear about it."

"Fucking...Koga! It's the guy!" Ginta shouted, reaching past Koga and pointing at Naraku.

"The guy?" Koga asked angrily, but then, the same realization that struck Ginta moments earlier seemed to hit Koga now. His eyes widened slightly, but then he started laughing. "Ha! This is the BDSM dude? What a joke! Jade always had weird taste."

"Oh my- you are the most instigating," Ginta let out a frustrated breath and turned away for a moment.

"So, you're Jade's other boss?" Koga quizzed, sarcastically spitting out the word, "boss," and quoting the air with his fingers.

"Indeed. You must be that fucking idiot she mentioned a couple of weeks back." Naraku responded evenly. His statement was a lie; Jade never mentioned being angry at anyone and she definitely didn't refer to them as a, "fucking idiot." But, the angry, purple-faced moron bought it anyway.

"Oh really? Well, she hasn't had nice things to say about you, either."

"Things? So she has spoken about me more than once? I can't imagine what she would possibly say about me other than I'm a sadistic, masochistic asshole who manipulates anything and everything around him. I highly doubt she has said anything along the lines of me being insatiably argumentative and confrontational, as well as being controlling, destructive, triggering, and downright, undeniably, bend-me-over-and-call-me-a-slut gorgeous." Naraku recited arrogantly, leaning forward slightly. "And you're just the fucking idiot."

"Fuuuuuuucking Hell," Ginta whimpered breathlessly, sounding like the air had just been crushed out of his body. Koga forced out a laugh, but Naraku could tell he was on the verge of throwing a punch. Koga nodded repeatedly, chanting, "Alright," while smiling.

"You know what? I like this gym, so I'm not gonna do something to get kicked out, but you can tell Jade that I don't take kindly to her sending her pretend-boyfriend after me. So I'll be dealing with her, not you." Koga replied as-a-matter-of-factly. Naraku sighed quietly. He was hoping for a fight, but he could tell he wounded the man deeper than any physical injury he could have inflicted.

"Yes, well, when she outsmarts you and has you arrested, make sure the mugshot gets your good side." Naraku shot, pointing at Koga's unblemished cheek before turning around to finish cleaning his mess.

"Yeah, fuck off!" Koga shouted, ignoring Ginta's pleas to let it go.

"I am terribly sorry about your tiny penis, sir, but there's absolutely nothing I can do about it." Naraku called back, smirking when he heard the calls of, "Ooooh shit!" echoing from the other gym members. Naraku turned towards the stairs to run on the treadmills instead of dealing with the heat outside or the people inside.

He lost track of exactly how long he ran. Naraku heard the treadmill timer go off once more, but he hit the reset button so he could buy more time to think about what to do with the woman behind him giving him the death stare. He wasn't afraid to confront her; just confused. Though he never turned back to look at her, he could see her reflection in the glass window that overlooked the gym's inside track. She seemed familiar, though he couldn't quite figure out why. At first, he thought she was just a very serious, very focused runner, but every time he glanced at her reflection, her eyes were fixed on him. He also noticed that whenever his timer went off, she would slow down, but then speed up when she realized he wasn't done.

' _I remember her now. She's Jade's friend.'_ Naraku realized. He also noticed that Jade had quite a few friends who worked out at one gym, yet barely worked out herself. Naraku slowed down to a jog and snorted. He turned the treadmill off and cleaned the screen, buttons and handles with the vinegar water and towel. He tossed the towel in a basket and placed the bottle of water on a shelf, and when he turned around, the woman had just finished cleaning her treadmill and was walking towards him.

"You're quite the runner." she said to him with a smile. Naraku raised an eyebrow. "Sorry if you saw me watching you. I was trying to see if I could keep up."

"You're selling, but I'm not buying. What do you really want to discuss with me?" Naraku asked. He crossed his arms and looked down at her, but she seemed completely unfazed by their size difference and looked back at him calmly.

"Naraku, right?"

"Mhm." he hummed, his smirk reappearing on his face. That seemed to irritate her, as her calm expression morphed into a stern, intimidating one. Naraku had almost forgotten how easily it was to anger people by smirking at them during a confrontation. Jade and Bruce were unmoved by it, but everyone else on Earth seemed to despise it deeply.

"Look, I don't know what your end game is, but keep your hands off Jade." the woman said slowly. Naraku could almost physically taste the anger, but he was also still confused. He didn't take Jade as the snitching type, seeing as it took quite a bit of persuasion to convince her to tell Bruce about Sesshomaru shattering a beaker across her face. He also didn't peg her as the type to send her friends out to solve her problems.

"You must be mistaken. I haven't struck her."

"I don't care if you're caressing her like a beautiful, tender angel; unless she consents, you don't touch her. Ever."

"I missed your name."

"I never gave it."

"Have it your way, Feminazi." Naraku retorted. If she could have spit fire, that would have been the moment. "Jade consented to many things when she agreed to work for me. I paid her; she works. If I want to tease her, I will, and she will let me. If I wish to terrify her, I will, and she will let me."

"You can't,"

"I can." Naraku interrupted, stepping towards her. "You and I both know Jade is far too passive to protest anything I say or do to her. You and I both know that if she does manage to find it in herself to speak up, all I have to do is toss a wad of cash her way and her lips are sealed. So, unless you discover where I live and quietly break into my apartment to kill me in my sleep, from where I'm standing, there isn't a damn thing you can do about it."

"You keep telling yourself that. One day, someone will catch you napping."

"Perhaps, but that day isn't today and that someone isn't you. Have a good day." Naraku flashed a smile at her and her scowl deepened. He turned and walked towards the stairs so he could leave. He would be damned if he ran into another friend of Jade's at the gym.

 **000000**

Jade hummed a low tune as she walked towards the lab. She hoped to find Bruce to ask him a question about the Organic Chemistry assignment he tossed at them the previous week, but she also wasn't opposed to asking Naraku. He was almost a different person entirely when answering science-related questions, so she made sure to ask him more often.

' _Yeah, but then Sango just haaaaaad to say something to him.'_ Jade remembered the heated conversation with her roommate bitterly. It took the weekend that was supposed to be celebratory for the three of them starting a new semester together and for Jade winning the online tournament and cast a dark, Naraku-shaped shadow over it. Jade knew better than to think Naraku would let that confrontation slide, especially if Sango said what she claimed she said. When she walked through the open door of the lab, she saw Naraku in front of the the warming plate, arranging glass slides and tapping air bubbles out with tweezers. Jade thought about turning around and going anywhere else on the planet, but as soon as she did, Naraku turned and looked at her.

"Ah, there you are." he called out. He then waved her over. "Come."

"I can see that you are making slides just fine over here." Jade said back.

"Now." Naraku ordered. Jade placed her book and notebook on the table before slowly approaching him. She left a space between them, but Naraku reached over and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her to himself as if she were a long-time friend.

"Yep. You're doing a great job." Jade chimed.

"Have I shown you how to make slides yet?" he asked, examining the tweezers closely. Jade wondered if he was going to stick them into her eye next.

"Just the cooling and scraping process, not the warming and mounting process." Jade answered. Naraku nodded and held her even tighter when he felt her try to pull away.

"It's quite simple. You drain a bit of sample with the little glass pipettes, create a bubble on the slides with surface tension, place them on the warmer to evaporate the water, and then stick them to the slide mounts when they are dry, heat them up to squeeze the air bubbles out, and you know the rest."

"And you label them."

"So smart."

"Okay."

"If you start to smell a sharp, sour smell, you've left it on there too long,"

' _The only thing I smell is a set-up.'_ Jade thought abysmally. She flinched when he snipped the tweezers at her face.

"What's wrong, dear? You seem bothered." Naraku continued snipping the tweezers at Jade's eyebrows to watch her dodge and writhe helplessly in his grasp.

"Nope, you're the one in a sour mood," Jade replied, hissing, "ow," when Naraku successfully plucked a hair from her right eyebrow. He held the tweezers for her to take and she did, rubbing her eyebrow grumpily.

"I made slides with about half of my samples, but something awful happened to them,"

"What happ-" Jade's sentence was cut off by glass shattering on the floor behind her. Jade spun around quickly, looking down at the glass. She recognized the pieces as the, now broken, slides. Naraku stood beside the mess with his hands on his hips, stepping on some pieces and grinding them into powder.

"I was clumsy and dropped them on the floor. Be a good girl and prepare all two hundred for me by the end of the day. Also, you can deal with the mess." Naraku said sweetly, but Jade tasted the salt and bitterness mixed in.

"Look, I'm just going to say this," Jade began, turning to watch Naraku shrug off his lab coat and grab his keys. He kept his back to her, though. "I didn't tell Sango to go after you. I insisted that she leave you alone."

"Heh, do you think I'm above punishing you for someone else's actions?"

"Absolutely not. I just wanted to clear the air with you, is all." Jade sighed, removing a few slides from the warming plate. She saw his hands resting on his hips again, but he still kept his back to her. It was an odd moment; usually Naraku liked looking her in the eyes when tormenting her.

"The man-child whose face you dyed, Koga, said that I was your, "pretend boyfriend," and that you had strange tastes. What did he mean by that?" Naraku asked after letting a few moments of silence pass between them.

"Wait, you talked to Koga, too?"

"He told me he would deal with you. I guess it was a bluff."

"It's hard to deal with me when I don't speak to you." Jade remarked, but immediately regretted it. She didn't want him to know anything more than he already did, but he also knew of her online life now. It was only a matter of time before Naraku found out several major things at this point.

"So, what did he mean?" Naraku pressed, finally turning around to face Jade. She looked back at him vacantly.

"You shouldn't take him seriously."

"You've never expressed any interest in me, then?"

"Why would I tell one friend how hot you are and tell my other friend how horrible you are so she could threaten you?"

"The feminazi did seem far more sincere." Naraku admitted. "I suppose I have my answer, though you explicitly avoided saying, "No."" He spun around back to the door and walked out just as Bruce was walking in.

"You have a cute butt, Naraku!" Jade called out playfully. She saw him cringe and speed up his pace and then she spotted Bruce standing beside the doorway, his eyes wide and his posture stiff.

"The fuck have I missed?" Bruce asked in a high-pitched voice. Jade darted to the closet to retrieve the broom to clean up Naraku's mess and to avoid eye contact.

"Nothing."

 **000000**

Since he ordered Jade to make his slides for him, Naraku decided he would go home for a while. The worst part about classes starting, aside from people walking too slow in front of him, was the forced interactions with people he normally would ignore and forget existed.

"Fuck me." Naraku whispered after pulling his key from the ignition. He also could feel a headache coming on. He sat in his car, savoring the silence, and staring at his patio. When his phone began vibrating constantly, he slowly pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the screen. It was Bruce.

"I am already gone." Naraku answered.

"Are you and Jade fucking?"

"What? No!" Naraku snapped while gritting his teeth.

"Whoa, calm down. I was just asking. And she said you were, but I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or not."

"Even if we were, it's none of your concern." Naraku replied, regaining control of his temper. "I know you didn't call me just to ask me that,"

"There's a few things, actually; you get to repaint my office door that you vandalized, you and I can discuss your goals for your research Tuesday, I found a few scholarships you might be interested in, so I will email the links to you, and your wish has finally been granted. You now have your own office." Bruce listed off, keeping the same monotonous tone throughout. Naraku perked up at the last part.

"Oh? When can I move in?"

"Whenever. You can get your key from Susan and she'll tell you where it is."

"Good."

"Don't forget about my door, asshole. And Tuesday at noon. Bring your bitch-salad with you so we don't waste more time than necessary with each other." Bruce ordered before ending the call. Naraku wanted to roll his eyes, but the headache had set in during the call. He stepped out of his car, placing his bag's strap over his shoulder. Naraku walked down the sidewalk to the mailboxes, flipping his keys until he found the one he needed.

' _Bills, bills, and...I didn't order anything.'_ Naraku grabbed the key left inside his mailbox, indicating a package too big for his mailbox and too valuable to be left on his doorstep was waiting for him inside one of the larger mailboxes to the side. Naraku unlocked the bin and pulled out a large, thin yellow package. Naraku closed both mailboxes and slowly walked back to his apartment building, reading the shipping label on his mystery package. It was from the same address his thesis samples were shipped from.

"A response to my email would have been nice," Naraku said aloud.

Once Naraku was inside his apartment, he shed his professional attire and pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. He swallowed a few pills to combat his headache and decided to wait for it to disappear before tearing into the package.

' _No, read it now.'_ he ordered himself, walking to his dining table and tearing the package open at the top. Naraku stared at the guinea pig when it began squeaking excitedly at the sound of paper being rattled.

"It isn't food. You know what your food bags sound like." Naraku scolded the pig. He walked over to the guinea pig's cage and reached inside, clicking his tongue. The gray pig waddled onto his hand and he lifted him from his prison. Naraku grabbed the cardboard box he had been using in attempt to potty train the pig and placed it on the floor, along with the guinea pig.

"Follow." Naraku said, walking towards his bedroom to retrieve his phone and the gem from his pants pockets. The guinea pig followed, his short legs rapidly moving to keep up with his owner's giant strides. Naraku opened his closet door and reached into his pockets. When he turned around, phone and gem in hand, he saw the guinea pig sitting just outside his bedroom doorway. The pig was still as a statue, not even breathing.

"Did something scare you?" Naraku asked, raising an eyebrow. He then rolled his eyes. "Why am I talking to you?" Naraku walked towards the doorway and the guinea pig darted back into the living room. He placed his phone and gem on the table beside the package and looked around the room. He couldn't see the pig, which usually meant he was chewing on something he shouldn't be. When he didn't come after Naraku clicked his tongue, he strode to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator door. This time, the critter squealed as he bolted towards the kitchen.

"Why are you screaming?" Naraku asked harshly, closing the fridge door. The guinea pig continued to chatter and even stood up on his hind legs. "Fine." Naraku opened the door again and pulled open the vegetable drawer. He snapped off a leaf of romaine lettuce that was longer and wider than the pig, rinsed it off in the sink, and bent down to give it to the pig. The pig snatched it and ran off to the living room, dragging the lettuce like a predator with its prey.

Before Naraku realized it, two hours of his life had been sucked into the brand new information about his study site. Within the package was another labeled, "Restricted." He had two new, very detailed topographic maps that revealed every high and low point in his site, every stream and every outcrop of rock worth mentioning. He also received copies of the notes numerous geologists, biologists, and chemists had taken when exploring and studying the area.

"You see, I was right," Naraku said, stroking the head of his guinea pig with a single finger. "The animals in the area live longer than average animals of the same species just a few miles away. The same goes for the plant life and, I assume, the microbial life. They don't live too much longer than their counterparts, but it isn't how much longer that matters; it's how consistently this happens." His only response was the happy pig chatter.

Naraku's phone began buzzing against the table's surface, which caused the guinea pig to run to Naraku's chest and hide as best as it could. Naraku didn't recognize the number, but he wasn't entirely against harassing a potential scammer, either.

"Yes?" he answered.

"I finished your slides." Jade said calmly. Naraku paused for a moment. Did Jade just give him her number? Willingly?

"That took you a while." he finally said, absentmindedly stroking the scared pig's fur with his free hand.

"I had class and homework."

"Are they labeled?"

"Labeled and placed inside a slide case which is also labeled. Where would you like me to put it?"

"On my desk."

"Are you alright?" Jade asked quickly. Naraku cringed.

"Why are you asking?"

"You sound serious. You're not even trying to agitate me."

"You have given me your phone number."

"There it is. Okay, slides are on your desk. Send me lots of dick pics. 'Kay, thanks, bye!" And before Naraku could even blink, she ended the call. He held his phone in front of him briefly before placing it back on the table. He looked down. The guinea pig had snuggled against his chest and flattened its body comfortably.

"She is strange." Naraku murmured, scratching the pig's ear. Naraku slipped his hand into his pocket, pulling the gem out.

' _The geologists found you and came to the same conclusion I have; we have no idea what you are.'_

"Ah!" Naraku hissed when he felt a sharp pain clamp down on his finger. The guinea pig had latched onto him and then ran across the table to escape him. Naraku held his injured hand away from the table to protect his documents from his blood.

' _What...happened?'_ Naraku's mouth hung open as he watched the guinea pig push its body up on his feet, raising his fur and grinding his teeth loudly. He even raised his head to show his teeth, a gesture Naraku once read as being the most threatening thing a guinea pig could do.

"Is it this?" Naraku asked, holding the gem up. The pig began whining and squealing, still grinding his teeth heatedly. He slipped the gem into his pocket and then brought his hand up, revealing his empty hands to the pig. Immediately, it sat down and ceased grinding its teeth. Naraku quickly pulled the gem from his pocket and the pig rose to its feet, lifting its head and grinding its teeth again.

Naraku placed the angered pig back into its cage and walked to his bathroom to clean the bite wound it landed on him. He found the two entry wounds from its teeth and had to give credit to the little bastard; not only was the wound bleeding excessively, but it was also starting to bruise. Naraku placed the gem down, cursing when he realized he used his bloody hand.

"What does it matter?" he exhaled abruptly. The gem was indestructible. What bothered Naraku more was the guinea pig and his irritation towards the gem. The guinea pig had lived with Naraku for almost six months and had never acted like that before. He nipped him every now and then, but those weren't meant to maim like this bite. So, what was it about the gem that bothered the guinea pig? He had never introduced the pig to the gem before, so it was never a thought that occurred to him, either.

He rubbed some antibacterial cream on his wound before wrapping a bandage around it. Naraku stopped moving when he heard a slight hissing sound. It sounded like something was sizzling. He looked down at the gem and gasped.

"It's," he choked out. His blood that coated the gym was bubbling and steaming! He cupped his hand over his mouth, unable to summon any thoughts to cope with.


	13. Laws of Nature

**Laws of Nature**

Grains. He could feel the grains shifting and falling beneath his feet, through his toes, almost as if the sand was trying to absorb him. It was dark over the ocean; flickers of white and blue dancing between the black clouds. Still, though, it was unbearably hot ashore. Naraku could feel his skin tightening, searing, almost screaming to be shaded. He stepped forward once, twice, and then he was waist deep in the dark, icy water. It crashed against him and pulled him in roughly. He didn't care. It was better than burning. He heard a whisper and dug his feet into the murky silt and looked around. No one was around, in or out of the water. But still, he could hear a voice. He closed his eyes, straining his ears to make-out what the voice was saying or who it was, if it was a man or woman, adult or child. His entire body turned ice cold and the voice became almost completely muffled.

Naraku woke slowly. The grogginess he felt was so heavy he was unsure if he was truly awake or not. He kept his eyes closed, trying to kickstart his brain by asking himself questions; what day was it, what time was it, what is on the schedule today?

' _My meeting with Bruce,'_ Naraku realized that was the answer to the last question. He was supposed to meet with Bruce at noon. He grabbed his phone and unlocked it, feeling his blood turn cold. He had thirty minutes to get ready and drive to his meeting! He slept through his alarm for five hours?

"Damn!" he hissed, stepping out of bed and striding to his bathroom in an attempt to make himself look presentable. Naraku saw he had a message from Jade and opened it.

' _ **Did you break the slides again? I know you're mad at me, but you're ruining your own stuff.'**_ the text read. Naraku responded with, "No," and reached up with his left hand to open the cabinet, his eye catching the bandage on his palm. It had almost turned red entirely. He exhaled heavily and loudly.

Naraku brushed his teeth so harshly, he was sure his gums no longer existed. He wrapped his hand in a clean bandage and he threw on jeans and a T-shirt. Strangely, his hair was rather tameable and despite a few tangles, it looked fine. He pulled it back into a high ponytail anyway. Naraku walked into his office and grabbed his bag and a folder off his desk. He leaned down to examine the sealed glass tube holding the gem and his blood. He added more to it by cutting his palm open. The blood was still bubbling, though less violently like it had the previous day.

"If I didn't know any better," Naraku trailed off, noticing that his blood looked darker. It was hard to tell in the dimly lit office, so he activated the flashlight on his phone and held the light at different angles. Sure enough, the blood had turned darker. Naraku glanced at the time on his phone and cursed. He didn't have time to figure out why the color had changed.

Naraku parked behind the Science Building, which was not allowed for anyone other than professors when classes were in session, but Naraku didn't care. He had three minutes to find Bruce, hopefully in his office, and then he had to calm down enough to be able to discuss his plans without sounding unsure or anxious. He walked down the hall, dodging between students leaving from and arriving to their classes, and ducked inside the department office, finding the narrow hallway.

' _That's a first.'_ Naraku saw Bruce's door was opened and the light inside was on. He didn't even knock; he walked right in, and saw Jade sitting in one of the two chairs in front of Bruce's desk.

"Speak of the Devil," Bruce announced, motioning at Naraku, who sat down in the chair opposite of Jade. "We were trying to figure out who broke your slides."

"Sesshomaru." Naraku said. He looked up when another thought hit him. "Or one of the other students who allegedly work in the lab, but never seem to show up to work."

"It wasn't you?" Bruce quizzed, rubbing the thin, peppered beard on his face. Naraku rolled his eyes.

"When have you known me to not admit doing something? I wanted those slides done yesterday so I could start looking at them today."

"Oh. Well, then you-"

"I'll do them again. I need the practice. I have class, though, so I'll do them after." Jade said as she stood up. She gave Naraku a small wave and he nodded back at her. Bruce waited to hear the department door close to indicate Jade had left to open his mouth again.

"It's bad enough she has to deal with you, but Sesshomaru, too?" Bruce waved his hand dismissively.

"He doesn't care about her. He's aiming for me."

"His aim is shitty. He keeps hitting her instead of you."

"He knows exactly what he's doing, but tell that to him on his time, not mine." Naraku remarked, unable to stop the bitterness from seeping into his tone. He pulled a small stapled packet of papers from his folder, handing them across the desk to Bruce.

"I'm just going to hold a lab meeting so I can bitch at all of you at once." Bruce sighed, slipping his glasses onto his face. His eyes darted from the papers to Naraku's hand. "What happened to your hand?"

"Voodoo ritual." Naraku replied dryly.

"Oh my God, one of your torture dungeon victims escaped, didn't they?"

"I don't wish to make a career out of this meeting, Bruce."

"Aw, someone's cranky. I guess you and Jade aren't really fucking after all." Bruce said with a grin. Naraku grit his teeth, but he held back any comments to encourage Bruce to read his schedule so they could discuss it and end this meeting quickly. The older man hummed approvingly at the first page and at the second page, nodding his head as his lips silently recited the words. Naraku pulled his phone out and saw another message from Jade.

' _ **I found Bruce. I'm holding him in his office.'**_ It was from twenty minutes prior to his arrival.

' _I think she deserves a free gram of weed from me.'_ Naraku locked his phone and placed it in his lap.

"This sounds good, but I don't see you having the time to do everything you've listed. I'm not implying that you're not fast or that Jade isn't good help, but,"

"Well, I'm not going to examine every single sample I receive. For example, the sediment core from the main lake has been cut in half-centimeter increments, but I'm not going to examine every half-centimeter. It's unnecessary. The same goes for the soil samples."

"Every one and a half centimeters sounds reasonable enough, even though you listed every centimeter. You could probably push it to every two centimeters."

"I am, for the conference in October, at least."

"What are you looking for in the sediment samples? That's usually more of a geological approach, isn't it?" Bruce asked, looking up from the paper.

"Yes and no. I'm not interested in the grains themselves as much as I am interested in the microbes."

"The only things left in there are diatom skeletons. You dissolved the organic material with the peroxide."

"The diatoms are indicators of what is in the lake. Each species represents a different nutrient." Naraku crossed one leg over the other, catching his phone before it fell to the floor.

"Fair enough. Will you even look at the samples with the organic material intact?"

"Yes. I don't think I will have it all completed for the conference, though."

"That's not a big deal. As long as you have something and a plan to explain, they won't care." Bruce waved his hand. Then he looked up again. "What about Jade? She can do the extractions on the side while you're counting your silica cretins."

"Jade doesn't know how."

"Teach her. Choose a weekend that you both can sacrifice and bulldoze your way through the first two or three fractions."

"The trick is convincing her. She has already refused to give up her weekends." Naraku sighed. Bruce stared at him for a moment, blinking. Then, he screwed his face up as if disgusted with that statement.

"Since when has that stopped you from threatening someone? Buy her a case of beer or give her pot or another portion of cash. Slash her tires, I don't know. Whatever it is you usually do."

"I'll tell her you said that when I do it." Naraku said back.

"I'm sure you will. Anyway, my question to you, and you don't have to have an answer now nor do I expect you to have one, is what is your end game? You have your hypothesis, you have your ideas, your plans, but if this turns out the way you expect it, what do you plan to do with the information? Additionally, what will you do if it doesn't turn out how you expect? What if you are completely wrong? That isn't to say your research won't be useful or interesting, especially to those currently observing this area, but you have to remember that even though you have your ideas, your plans, science and nature don't care."

"I've already learned." Naraku said smoothly, flexing his left hand.

"Then I have nothing more to teach you. You're in the driver's seat now." Bruce scribbled his signature across the top of the front page before handing it back to Naraku.

 **000000**

"Jaaaaaaaade," Sango cried out breathlessly. She wiped tears from her face with one hand while pressing the other against her aching abdomen. A few other students from their class had turned to look at them, curious about why one girl was trapped in an endless loop of hysterical laughter and why the other was frowning at the floor.

"I told you I wasn't good at this stuff." Jade whined back, her face pulled into a full pout.

"I can't," Sango panted, placing both hands over her eyes. "Turn it in! I can't stop!"

"Look, I know her face is messed up,"

"It's two dots and a curve! Why is the rest of her realistic?" Sango asked with wide eyes before falling back into another painful fit of laughter.

"I didn't have time!" Jade shot.

"Give her a nose, at least!"

"No."

"Ahahaha, Jade, please take it away," Sango begged as she waved her hand dismissively at Jade's drawing. Jade grumbled curses under her breath as she stood from her desk. They had a live model to draw this day in class; some random chick sitting on a stool. Jade was able to make the shape somewhat-human and was able to sketch in the details of her clothes and hair, but Jade was so slow that she ran out of time and hadn't worked on the face at all. So, she ground two dots and a U-shaped curve onto the face and called it a day...until Sango lost her shit upon seeing it.

' _Of course hers looks better than mine, so I can't even tag her back,'_ Jade lamented. She placed her drawing on the professor's desk. He took one look at it and snorted loudly before quickly covering his mouth and nose with his hand.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." he said softly, his voice muffled as he looked up at Jade with his worried brown eyes. Jade shrugged.

"I've been listening to it for a few minutes now." she responded, jerking her thumb in the direction of Sango, who was now waddling towards the desk while wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her T-shirt.

The two roommates gathered their items. Sango was very organized and precise about which slots she stuck her pencils in and how carefully she slipped her sketchbook and notebook into her backpack. Jade unceremoniously shoved everything into her backpack before swinging it around onto her back. Sango followed Jade and huffed.

"I'm sorry, Jade. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." Sango said once they reached the stairway.

"It's fine. I have other things on my mind." Jade admitted.

"Is it that Naraku guy?"

"Actually, no," Once Jade said that, she grimaced. "Okay, yes, but he's not the main reason. At least he's funny."

"Want me to slash his tires?"

"Who do you think he'll take that out on?"

"Tell him I did it. I'll tell him myself." Sango stated proudly.

"My question still stands," Jade grumbled.

"Let's go grab some food and not talk about him."

Jade wanted to grab a burger, but Sango guilted her into a deli sandwich instead, and even then, Sango had to recite her usual spiel about carbs, fats, calories, and how Jade needed to go to the gym with her. Jade almost brought up Naraku being there, but she decided to just let Sango say her piece without interruptions. It would be over sooner that way.

"Am I annoying you?" Sango asked abruptly as they sat down at a random table in the commons area.

"No. Why?" Jade asked back, taking a huge bite of her ham sandwich to give her an excuse to reply slowly.

"You just have this look on your face," Sango pointed out. Jade chewed slowly while gently shaking her head. Sango waited a moment, but when she realized Jade was chewing slowly, she decided to drop the subject entirely. "I noticed you streamed the other night. Is everything settled?"

"Kind of. The branch leaders have agreed there isn't enough evidence, or reason, to punish me."

"Has he apologized?"

"Fuuuuuuuuck no. Are you serious?" Jade asked in a deep, goofy voice, but her tone was anything but sweet.

"Well, I think you should leave and start a different community, or just go solo."

"Totally. I can call it, "Girl Power," and everyone will flock to me." Jade replied sarcastically.

"I'm sure you have fans who will follow you."

"Some, yeah, but it's a small fraction."

"You should probably step back and weigh out your options,"

"Got it." Jade bit.

"You're really moody."

"I just read four articles discussing shit that I don't know about. There were words in there that I definitely recognized, but I don't know what the hell these articles were talking about, despite the titles telling me. I just made two hundred slides yesterday only for someone to drop the case they were in and shatter them, so I have to remake them before I leave today."

"I'm sorry." Sango lowered her fork and sighed. "I don't have to work today. Do you want me to stay in the lab with you and give you some company?"

"No. I have to discuss those papers with Naraku and he prefers that to be one-on-one."

"That sounds super fun. I can't imagine how well he treats you during those." Sango droned on sarcastically, stabbing her salad sharply with her fork.

"Actually, he's really fun during our paper discussions."

"If you say so."

Jade bid Sango goodbye after she walked to the lab with her. Sango waved and marched away forcefully, as if she really didn't want to. Jade imagined she had a hard time leaving her friend in what she considered a dangerous situation. She couldn't blame Sango, but she also wished she would have a little more faith in Jade's ability to handle situations. She pushed open the slightly-ajar door and spotted Naraku standing at the warming plate, tapping air bubbles out from his new slides.

"Uh, I said I would do them." Jade said aloud, gently placing her backpack on the small couch next to the dry-erase board.

"I'm faster." Naraku answered. Jade rolled her eyes, but decided to take it as a victory. She spotted the cooled slides on the table and they had yet to be scraped of their excess mounting fluid.

' _I better not ask. He's wearing jeans, so he's probably irritable.'_ Jade slid down the table so she wouldn't be in his way. She placed the first slide on the glass plate and picked up the razor, scraping away the hardened, yellowish fluid. It almost reminded her of honey, but it wasn't as thick and it smelled awful.

"Did you read the articles I sent to you?" he asked.

"Yep."

"And?"

"Well, they uh," Jade giggled nervously, scratching her head briefly. "They definitely had words that I recognized, such as, "The," "and," "microbes," and, "lifespan," soooooo I give them a solid eight out of fuck me on a scale determining how smart I feel."

"You do realize dictionaries exist, yes?"

"Yeah, I used an online dictionary, the physical dictionary I have at home, and Urban Dictionary just for shits and giggles. I understand the words; I just don't understand what they were trying to explain to me."

"The titles usually do that."

"You are right. Those titles were really good at not English."

"Which articles did I send you?" Naraku asked quickly, turning to place more slides on the table to cool.

"The first one was the microbial lifespans in a nutshell paper,"

"Stop. So, tell me what you think that one is about?"

"I understand what it's about, but I don't understand how or why these things live. It starts talking about anaerobic respiration, which is divided into all these categories, and then it starts explaining the methods of how they observed this shit and,"

"I told you to skip the methods." Naraku interrupted.

"No you didn't."

"I did. When I sent those attachments, I also instructed, "Skip the methods portions of these papers.""

"Naraku, I can bring the email up right now. It didn't say that."

"Oh," Naraku turned to her and smirked. "Oops."

"I'll show you an oops," Jade responded harmlessly.

"So, you are now aware of microbes being able to respire using other electron acceptors besides oxygen,"

"I guess." Jade exhaled to her side to prevent herself from blowing the solidified bits of slide mount fluid off the glass plate.

"You are now aware of the existence of different types of microbes,"

"Water bears are my favorite, by the way." Jade chirped.

"Water bears are everyone's favorite. Why?" Naraku asked skeptically.

"Because they're chubby and cute and indestructible. I found a three-minute video of one walking on moss. I think I'm going to make a video of water bears. My viewers need to know about them."

"Do you have any questions that don't pertain to the methods of these papers?"

"Um, nooooo. I think that was the main issue for me, especially when they started throwing out deviations and differential equations. Fuck that. Water bear don't care."

"I suppose I should be content with the fact that you're inspired by something from those papers," Naraku lamented with a sigh.

"But you're not. What's your beef with water bears?"

"I don't have anything against water bears. I just find other creatures to be just as interesting. Water bears always seem to create an instant cult whenever they're mentioned in a room of people."

"It's because they're more swole than you, isn't it?"

"Yes, Jade. I'm highly jealous of a microscopic caterpillar's musculature."

After scraping the rest of the slides, Jade swept the debris into the trash and organized the slides into the slide case numerically. She noticed Naraku pulling all the items from his desk, organizing the papers into cross stacks on top. He tossed all pens and pencils into a cup and pulled his shoulder bag on, lifting the cup and the stacks of papers into his arms.

"Bring those with you." Naraku ordered, nodding at the slide case. Jade picked it up, quickly swiped her backpack, and followed him out of the lab.

"Did you get a new office?" Jade asked after she caught up with him.

"I did."

"Sweet."

Naraku left the building from the East side and walked across the curving walkways to the Science Building's neighbor, Lowry Hall. Jade poked behind him and dodged another student in the hallway who was focused on his cell phone. Naraku pressed the call button for the elevator and turned back to look at Jade, who was staring aimlessly down the hallway. They both stepped onto the elevator and Naraku hit the button for the third floor.

"What did you do to your hand?" Jade asked, pointing at his bandage.

"I cut it." Naraku answered simply. He saw her frown and then look up at him.

"On purpose?"

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know." Jade sighed. "So, were you running late today because of it?"

"No." Naraku stepped off the elevator and turned right, counting the room numbers until he found his; 308. He unlocked the door with his uninjured hand and pushed it open. Lowry Hall was one of the older buildings on campus, so the doors inside the building were a heavy wood, possibly oak. The office had two bookcases; one against the North wall and one against the South. The desk was old, but made of a sturdy wood, too.

"Dusty." Jade said while coughing.

"Yes. I will have to clean it and bring my own chair."

"And a lamp."

"And my microscope." Naraku placed his desk items on top of the desk and turned back to Jade, holding his hand out for the slide case. She handed it to him and slipped her hands into her pockets.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. The first conference we will attend is in October. It begins the thirteenth and stretches until the sixteenth. We must attend two of the days."

"Where is it being held?"

"Colorado. Our tickets and hotel rooms will be paid for ahead of time and then whatever we buy to eat will be compensated when we return." Naraku explained, leaning against the edge of his new desk.

"Oh, okay."

"Also, you need to pick a weekend in September to sacrifice to the extraction gods."

"You're letting me pick?" Jade smiled.

"Don't push it." Naraku warned, frowning irritably.

"How about the second weekend, which is the weekend after next?" she asked, holding up two fingers.

"That will work. For three days, you will be in the lab with me. You won't have time to go home or go to work, so request those days off."

"I'll cry when we get there." Jade said, turning around to leave. "Bye."

"B-Bye," Naraku clamped his lips shut. He didn't understand why he felt the need to say it back.

 **000000**

Kagome bit her lip lightly as she read the instructions for Step Four for what seemed to be the hundredth time. She had highlighted portions and taken notes from Naraku's lecture, but she still didn't trust if she was doing anything right.

"Sooooo, is this going to kill me?" one of her lab partners, a tall, lanky guy, Todd, asked Naraku. He looked down at the younger man's hands, which had blotches of black stains all over them and even a few spots on the arms.

"Yes. From the looks of it, you have about two and a half hours left to live. Conveniently, that's about how much class time you have left to finish the experiment." Naraku replied calmly, folding his arms behind his back as he walked away.

"Uh, I have a question," Kagome called out hesitantly. She saw him stop and wait a moment before turning around to face her. Kagome swallowed hard and pointed at the beaker in front of her. "After we stirred the silver nitrate into the water, we just drop the wire in there and that's it?"

"I would hope so. That's how I've been doing it for years." Naraku answered, turning around and continuing his slow prowl around the room.

"Ugh. A simple yes is all we need." Kagome grumbled, twisting the copper wire into a spiral shape and bending a hook on the end. She hung it on the edge inside the glass and gently pushed the beaker to the middle of the table to prevent any accidents.

"So, we just wait?" Todd asked, trying to push a strand of his sandy brown hair out of his face, but he was afraid touching it with his stained hands would stain his hair, too. Kagome reached over and flipped it to the side for him.

"I guess so. That's what it says." Kagome said, looking to her right at her other, silent lab partner. Jade had dubbed her as, "Rainbow Girl," and it wasn't inaccurate, but Kagome learned her name was Sara. Sara had already began answering the questions of the experiment, so Kagome decided to do the same.

"Oh, look! There's silver on the wire already!" Todd said, using the tip of his pencil to point at the tiny silver speck sitting on the top coil of the wire. Kagome and Sara leaned forward to get a better look. Kagome looked over when she heard Jade call Naraku's name. The man turned to her and lowered his arms.

"How much money does the department blow on this experiment? This can't be the most cost-effective way."

"At least six-hundred a class, if not more."

"Wow." Jade's eyes widened. "Couldn't we use any other silver compound?"

"We could."

"Wait," Sara said suddenly, causing Kagome to jump slightly. "This says to leave it for next week on the back page,"

"What?" Kagome and Todd asked simultaneously. They flipped to the page Sara was staring at and read it.

"I'll ask. It could be an accidental print job." Kagome said, raising her hand. She saw Naraku elbow Jade and point her to their table demandingly, which made Kagome sigh with relief. Jade quickly walked over, tugging at her lab coat's sleeves.

"What's up?" Jade asked, walking around to Kagome's side. Kagome pointed to the fine text stating to leave the copper wire for next week. Jade immediately smiled and exhaled. "Did you guys finish the first four questions at least?"

"Yeah!" the three students chirped.

"Alright. Go ahead and start cleaning your stuff. Put one of those glass plates over it to keep stuff from falling in and put it in one of your drawers." Jade said, striding away towards Naraku. Kagome assumed Jade was telling him they had finished. Naraku began walking from group to group, saying nothing. The other groups saw Kagome's group cleaning and began doing the same. This seemed to greatly amuse Naraku as he began chuckling.

Once the clanking of glasses and the sound of running water from the four sinks of the room subsided, Naraku walked to the front of the room and cleared his throat. The class quieted down, looking at one another curiously.

"As I'm sure some of you noticed, this experiment is a two-day experiment," Naraku began.

"So we could have left earlier?" a man asked, the irritation in his voice noticeable.

"I'm not stopping anyone." Naraku replied calmly, slipping his hands into the pockets of his lab coat. "Although, something tells me a few more of you will begin reading your experiment directions before class from now on. I might randomly decide to have a pop quiz every now and then, too."

"You guys should be able to answer the first four questions of your lab. The other four are next week's questions. So, if your wire is submerged, put it in one of your drawers and see you next week." Jade announced, noticing the tension and hoping to loosen it. She heard the grumbles and sighs of irritation. A few people slammed their books shut and cursed under their breaths. She mouthed, "Sorry," to Kagome, who nodded back understandingly. Jade glanced back at Naraku, who seemed to adore every look of frustration and anger students shot him as they left the room.

"I think they're mad." Naraku said once the room was empty.

"Nah, they're fine." Jade responded while waving her hand dismissively.

 **000000**

Naraku pressed a button on his laptop to begin playing his music. He pulled his chair up to the smaller desk he commandeered from a hallway closet and looked into the eyepieces of the microscope he inherited. The department was selling off older microscope models because they received funding for newer models. Bruce promised Naraku could have the broken one for free if he could figure out what was wrong with it since no one else could or cared to fix it at that point. So, Naraku did, and now it was his to play with.

' _The focus knob is a bit more sensitive than I would like it to be.'_ Naraku leaned back and dimmed the light of the scope before looking back at the slide on the stage. He could see the various pieces of silica, which just looked like broken glass, and bits of orange iron stains. As he continued to twist the coarse and fine focus knobs, another color caught his eye; one that shouldn't have been there. Purple.

"There is no way," Naraku whispered, finally able to see exactly what the purple material was. He saw the diatoms, but they were various shades of purple instead of of the transparent gray of the silica their cell walls were made of. Naraku leaned back from the microscope again, rubbing his eyes gently as he shook his head.

' _They aren't stained because that requires biological material and these samples have been cleansed of that. It can't be how the light is reflecting through the microscope because they all wouldn't be the same color at the same time.'_ Naraku inhaled deeply through his nose and leaned forward slowly. He readjusted the light, just to knock that possibility out of the way, but no matter how the light changed, the diatoms remained purple.

"This is unbelieveable." he laughed. He had to once he realized that there were so many diatoms that counting them was nearly impossible, let alone identifying them. They were also of several different species and shapes; some shaped like lips, others shaped like cylinders, more shaped like sticks, pears, and the list went on, and they were all piled on top of one another. He had to count and identify nearly every slide and this was his first view at the very corner of the first slide.

"They can't all look like this, otherwise this lake would be dead." Naraku turned the gears to move the slide gently, just to get a look at the rest of it. It looked even worse in the middle than the corner. Naraku removed the slide and chose a slide from the middle portion of the sediment core samples. He placed it on the microscope and focused again, only to curse when it was more of the same. He pulled that slide off and chose one from an even deeper depth. Again, more purple and too many dominant species coexisting.

"No. That's impossible. They're contaminated." Naraku pulled his phone from his pocket and calling Jade. "They have to be."

"Hey, I'm on a delivery run right now. Can this wait?" Jade asked quickly.

"No."

"Okay. Talk fast, please." she urged.

"Did you use individual pipettes when you made these slides?"

"Naraku, you made that batch earlier."

"Still, when you made your batch, you swapped out individual ones, correct?"

"Yeah. One pipette for every sample. Two hundred pipettes." she recited.

"When you rinsed them?"

"Just the water. Sediment stayed in the bottles."

"Sesshomaru must have done something." Naraku was now slowly opening and closing his fingers on his left hand. He had squeezed his fist closed so hard he opened the cut on his palm again.

"What's wrong?"

"I'll explain later." Naraku hung up and placed his phone down on the desk beside the microscope. He stared at the green case where his slides resided, absentmindedly running his thumb across his bottom lip. They had to be contaminated. There was no way that many diatoms of different species equally thrived when living on top of one another. That was against the laws of nature itself.

"Why not?" he asked dejectedly, grabbing the very last slide in the case. It was the deepest depth the core had reached. He placed the slide on the stage, focused it, and nearly slapped the microscope off the desk at what he saw.

"Why is this one normal?" he hissed, looking back into the eyepieces. There were bits of iron and there were some diatoms. Some. And they were the translucent color that diatoms were supposed to be. Naraku checked the next slide up, and the next, and when he hit the seventeenth, some diatoms were purple and others were still clear, and they weren't overcrowded, either. But the eighteenth slide was a different story. It was the same crowded, littered, purple mess like the rest of the sides. He could only pull one conclusion from it; something changed drastically in the lake's past.

' _Tomorrow I will look at the original samples with all the organic material intact. The diatoms should still be purple if this isn't sabotage.'_ Naraku locked his new office door and decided to call it a night. If his samples were contaminated, there was no reason to waste his time staring at them. He could feel the tension of anger in his body, though. He had to force his jaw open to prevent himself from chipping his teeth.

His drive home was quiet. The only noise was from outside when he rolled his window down. The humid streak of summer had finally broken and the evening was graced with a gentle, cool breeze. Naraku figured he would fix himself a drink and sit on his patio and enjoy it. He did exactly that once he walked into his apartment. He dropped a leaf of romaine lettuce into the guinea pig's cage before walking out onto his patio. Naraku took a sip of his drink, swished it around in his mouth, and then frowned.

' _I could have been a little more generous with the rum.'_ He didn't feel like standing back up and going back inside to fix it, though. Naraku took a bigger drink and swallowed it quickly, tilting his head back against his chair.

"I finally have some of my samples, I can finally examine them, and they're a disaster." Naraku recited softly, a bitter chuckle pouring from his lips before he poured more alcohol in. Even if Sesshomaru contaminated them, it still didn't explain the purple color of the diatoms. Naraku tried not to compare them to the gem, but they did resemble it.

' _It dissolved in my blood and it was one shard. There has to be more of it.'_ Naraku concluded. It made no sense for there to be one tiny fragment of that substance in existence. He hadn't read all of the notes the various scientists had written out in the field, but he wasn't sure if they had found other pieces or not. When he repeated the phrase, "It dissolved in my blood," in his head over and over, the thought of his samples being perfectly fine began to sound more plausible.

Naraku drained the rest of his drink and closed his eyes. The nighttime breeze was enough to help subside the physical symptoms of his frustrations and the alcohol was working on his mental symptoms. "It dissolved in my blood," it repeated again, and again, and again.

Naraku stood from his chair quickly, striding inside and placing his empty glass on his dining table. He walked straight back to his office and flicked the light on. Sitting on his desk was the glass tube and it was now reflecting a deep, dark purple color instead of the red from his blood. Naraku tilted his head as he picked it up and held it above his head to examine it with better angles of light.

"Crystals?" Naraku murmured when he saw them encrusted at the bottom of the tube. It wasn't bubbling or steaming anymore, so the reaction had finished. He placed the tube back in its holder and opened the top right drawer of his desk, pulling out an empty glass slide. He found a clean cover and turned around to his bookcase for his mini-microscope.

Naraku placed a tiny drop of his now-purple blood and mineral solution onto the slide cover and then placed it on the slide. He slid it into the stage of his microscope and chose the highest magnification it had, focusing it carefully.

"Crystals." he stated, looking up and holding the microscope to his abdomen. The liquid was hardening into a crystalline structure, which meant the crystals at the bottom of the tube were just an advanced portion of the solution, not the remains of the gem. He assumed it would all be crystallized soon.

' _It doesn't make sense, though. How can a mineral replace organic material? A mineral can only replace a mineral.'_ Naraku wondered. It had been many years since he had taken his last Geology class, but he knew the basics. Moss, grass, lichens, bacteria; they formed on or around rocks. Trees would grow through rocks, splitting them, or simply absorb the rocks into their trunks. Living organisms could and would break down rocks, but it did not work the other way.

Naraku barely slept that night. He woke too frequently for him to have received any REM sleep. But, he felt fine. Determined. He didn't know what he had discovered, but whatever it was, it was disobeying the laws of known science. Naraku walked to the opposite side of the Science Building to find his former Geology professor. She had worked in mineral mines, on oil rigs, and was a consultant for properties out in the middle of nowhere. She was the best professional he had instant access to. He glanced into the rooms she usually taught in, but did not see her. He checked her office and there she was, sitting at her computer, silently cursing at whatever email she just read.

"Dr. Burress," Naraku called out, knocking on the opened door. She glanced at him and shot him a sly smile.

"What do you want?" she asked in a jokingly demanding voice. Naraku stepped inside the office.

"I have questions about the relationship between organics and minerals."

"Well, you've come to the right place. Sit. Ask." she insisted, pointing at the chair in front of her desk. She turned her chair from her computer to face him, adjusting her square-rimmed glasses.

"Can a mineral replace organic material? Hypothetically?" Naraku asked. Dr. Burress closed her eyes slowly, her face slightly contorted as if she was in pain. She brought her hands to her face and shook her head slightly.

"Did you learn nothing from me?" she groaned. Naraku shifted in his chair and lightly blew a strand of his hair away from his face.

"I learned that there is almost always an exception to the rule from you."

"Almost. When you find olivine formed with quartz, you let me know, because I will eat my desk if you do."

"Do fossils not count? Petrified wood?" Naraku listed off.

"No. The organism has to die and decay. When it decays, spaces form within the body and bones. Minerals will fill those spaces overtime. If there is no space, there is no mineral growth. Organics don't care if there is space or not. They break rocks down and make their own space." Dr. Burress explained, tucking her graying brown hair behind both ears. She clasped her hands together and waited patiently for Naraku's next comment or question.

"So, there are no minerals that can attach themselves to organic material?" Naraku pressed on, his leg shaking side to side. This wasn't helping him at all!

"No. Organisms invade and overgrow. They have a mission; survive. Rocks and minerals aren't alive, Naraku." she said with a frown. "Why are you asking?"

"No reason." he lied.

"Mm, that doesn't sound like you. Have you read something?"

"No. I just wanted to be sure that it isn't possible in any circumstances."

"Well, we can't count out the aliens."

"Of course." Naraku stood up, turning to her office door.

"Is it part of your thesis research? This, "no reason," you're asking about?"

"No. I was simply curious." Naraku said, looking back at her. Her expression had hardened; her mouth a thin pink line on her aging face.

"Naraku," Dr. Burress began, slowly taking her glasses off so she could rub her eyes and forehead with her other hand. "Whatever this is you're working on, stop while you're ahead."

"I told you, Dr. Burress; I was just curious." Naraku replied shortly.

"Don't mock me. I'm not Bruce. You're a smart man, possibly the smartest I've ever met, and it's a shame you weren't given impulse control, but just stop whatever this is for yourself at least. Focus on your thesis, your future, your family, friends,"

"I have no friends." Naraku said flippantly, turning around and walking out. His phone vibrated in his pocket, so he pulled it out. It was a text from Jade asking him about what was wrong the previous night. He ignored it and continued walking.


	14. Thoughts and Feelings

**Thoughts and Feelings**

"Jade! Wait!" Kagome called out as she jogged down the hallway. She saw Jade turn quickly and wave to her.

"What's up?" Jade asked.

"I just wanted to make sure that I understand the point of the copper wire experiment before I turn in the report. It seems too easy."

Jade nodded and shrugged simultaneously. "It is easy. But I'll still answer your questions"

"Alright, so the copper pulls the silver from aqueous silver nitrate and the copper pairs with the nitrate, but it asks how we know the copper attached to the nitrate."

"Yeah. You could see the solid silver hanging on the wire, so you know that part is true. The copper part is just as visible."

"Is it that why the solution turned blue?" Kagome smiled, happy to know her gut was right.

"Yep. The blueish-green color is a big indicator of copper and copper-related materials."

"So, the point of this experiment is showing us an oxidation and reduction reaction." Kagome stated.

"And to observe mass to mole relationships. Put that down, too. He's particular about answers and I have to grade by his rules." Jade insisted while wagging her finger. Kagome quickly scribbled it down inside her notebook to add to her report later and sighed.

"Thanks, Jade. This class would be a nightmare without you."

"Because you're not confident or because of Naraku?" Jade asked with a giggle.

"Yes." Kagome answered.

The two roommates bid each other goodbye; one walking away confidently and the other not in a hurry to reach her destination. Jade stood at the lab door, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly before pushing it open and looking around. Naraku was sitting in a rolling chair with his eyes closed, slowly spinning a meter stick in his right hand. Jade saw the white wires of his earbuds slightly twisted in his wavy black hair. He opened his eyes and took one earbud out, raising an eyebrow.

"You are late." Naraku announced, pushing himself in the chair and paralleling Jade's path to her spot on the opposite side of the table. He slouched down and continued twirling the meter stick with his fingers.

"A student caught me in the hallway and asked me a question," Jade said.

"Really? They asked you?" he retorted with amusement.

"It was about the silver nitrate lab, so, yeah." Jade placed her hands on her hips and shrugged. It was Kagome who had asked her the question, but he didn't need to know that. Jade wondered if it stung his pride knowing someone came to her and not him.

"I suppose you are the more approachable one," Naraku admitted. The meter stick stopped spinning.

 _'Yep. It bothers him.'_ Jade thought, holding back a smile. She turned and looked at the door when it opened, feeling her good mood slip when she saw it was Sesshomaru. She couldn't deny the bitterness she felt about him shattering the slides she made. They were her first slides and she wanted to know if they turned out fine, but now she would never know.

"I left a stack of papers on my desk and it disappeared. What did you do with it?" Sesshomaru asked aloud, closing the door behind him.

"You are speaking to," Naraku trailed off questioningly, pocketing his phone and earbuds.

"Where are my papers?" Sesshomaru repeated, his tone hardened. He marched past Jade towards the sink.

"Where are his papers, Jade?" Naraku asked in a serious tone matching Sesshomaru's, pointing the meter stick at her.

"Knowing you, they're a pile of ash somewhere." Jade answered quickly.

"Don't bring her into this." Sesshomaru warned coldly. Jade side-glanced at him with shock. She didn't expect that from him. She looked back at Naraku and realized he was staring straight at her.

 _'Damn. He saw that.'_ Jade raised her eyebrows, expecting some quirky statement from Naraku. Instead, he slowly slid the meter stick across the table, pushing her notebooks onto the floor.

"Have you checked the trash cans?" Naraku asked, keeping his eyes on Jade.

"You're just sending me on a wild goose chase. I'm not interested."

"How many trash cans and recycling bins are in this building, I wonder? They have to be in one of them."

"I'm sticking with my original answer of, "pile of ash." Can you reprint them, Sesshomaru?" Jade asked, bending over to pick up her notebooks. Naraku saw Sesshomaru look at her to answer, but then he stopped and stared at her, as if he was shocked that she addressed him. When Jade stood back up, she saw Sesshomaru's eyes aimed down and flinched.

"What was your question?" Sesshomaru inquired, blinking. Jade frowned and smiled at the same time. It was such a painful expression, too, but she didn't know how else to react.

"Were you just...checking me out?"

"I don't think that was your question, but no, I wasn't."

"Uh-huh," Jade replied, her nervous giggling surfacing.

"I'll second that, Jade. He definitely was not checking you out. Why would he?" Naraku asked, receiving glares from both labmates for entirely different reasons.

"Why wouldn't he?" Jade argued bitterly, thinking Sesshomaru was a butt man.

"One reason," Naraku help up a finger, watching as Sesshomaru's hands balled into fists. "You're too old."

"Uh," Jade choked, but Sesshomaru had already vaulted onto the table, and Naraku's hysterical laughter had filled the room.

"Weeee!" Naraku teased as he pushed his rolling chair away from the psychotic Sesshomaru with a single kick. Naraku leapt out of the chair and threw the meter stick at him. Sesshomaru knocked it and the chair aside, chasing after him vehemently. Naraku ripped the lab door open, but that was his downfall as Sesshomaru's hands latched onto his shoulders and pulled him back into the lab and slammed him onto the floor. He was still cackling and Jade was glued in place.

"Leave." Sesshomaru ordered her, his eyes fixated on Naraku. "I want no witnesses."

"Ooookay," Jade agreed, almost jogging to the door. She did not want to redirect any of that anger simmering beneath his skin to herself.

"I'm so excited!" Naraku chuckled, pushing himself up on his elbows.

"You're fucking dead!" Sesshomaru shouted as Jade closed the door behind her. She walked to the other side of the hallway, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms. She heard the various grunts, thumps of fists hitting skin, angered curses, and Naraku's laughter. She also heard glass shattering and the loud wail of wood scratching the floor. Jade assumed the main table was receiving some abuse, too. She nodded awkwardly to a couple of students walking by, both who glanced at the door worriedly, but they continued walking, as if they knew better than to get involved.

"You promise me with a good time and that's all you've got? I'm insulted!" Naraku announced as he opened the door, but as soon as he cracked it open, Jade saw the enraged Sesshomaru tackle Naraku into the door, slamming it shut and causing the entire doorway to shutter with the force.

"Hahahahaha! Get fuckin' wrecked, dude!" Jade burst into laughter, holding her stomach with her hands when her laughter began to hurt. Naraku deserved it and the fact that his arrogant face was just bounced off a door made it even sweeter for her. She could only imagine the throbbing revenge boner Sesshomaru had at this point. The door opened again after a moment of silence, Sesshomaru standing at the entrance this time.

"It looks like you have time to grab a snack. Naraku decided to take a little nap." Sesshomaru said calmly, adjusting the collar of his shirt, which was missing a few buttons. His straight, white hair was now a disheveled mess and his lip was bleeding, along with a nice bruise already developing on his right cheek.

"Um," Jade didn't know what to say and Sesshomaru didn't wait. He strode down the hall as if nothing happened. Jade looked around, but people were in classes or in their offices. She slowly approached the laboratory door, brushing past it slowly. On the other side of the door was a smear of blood.

 _'Probably Naraku's.'_ Jade assumed, giggling as the image of him being splattered across the door replayed in her head. Jade didn't have to look for Naraku, as he was sprawled out on the floor at the entrance. However, the dark blue blanket that was usually draped over the back of the lab couch was now carefully placed over his body. Jade squeezed her mouth with her hands, snorting loudly.

 _'Oh my God, they're both psychopaths!'_ she realized, the tears of joy, and fear, rolling down her face.

It took a few more minutes, but Naraku finally regained consciousness. Jade stood over him, bent over slightly. He blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the light of the lab.

"How long was I out?" he asked, slowly sitting up and tossing the blanket from his body.

"Eh, I wasn't really counting." Jade responded. Naraku blinked again and looked up at her with a frown.

"How long would you have waited before thinking something was wrong?" he asked her.

"Hey, you called that dude a pedophile and he beat you like an unwanted step-child. You're lucky he stopped."

"I did not call him a pedophile. Besides, I landed a few hits on him." Naraku said with a small whine, but he was smiling again.

"You know what you meant with that comment. He walked out with a bruise, a bloody lip, and messy hair. You got knocked the fuck out, had a blanket placed over you, and you have a gash on your forehead. He won." Jade insisted as she backed away from him. Naraku rose to his feet slowly, pressing his hand to his forehead and examining the blood, which was now slowly dripping down his face.

"It's a cut." Naraku corrected.

"Whatever." Jade whispered with a smile.

After Naraku cleaned himself up and placed a bandage on his forehead not-a-gash, he walked to the closet and began pulling out large trash bags. Jade could hear the familiar hollow clanking of plastic bottles used for samples. She stood from her seat and brushed her shirt off lightly.

"These all need to be filled with cleaning acid and shoved into various ovens for a day." Naraku stated, shaking the bags.

"All?" Jade repeated.

"Oh yes, we will be starting with phosphorus extractions,"

"Question,"

"Yes, it's a torturous process." Naraku said flatly.

"No, no, I was wondering if it's necessary to do all two hundred samples."

"What makes you ask?"

"Well, I noticed the labels were half-centimeter increments, but I was thinking that doing an extraction on every half-centimeter seems like overkill. If we plot them on the graph, every one or two centimeters will follow the same trend as half-centimeters." Jade explained, now swaying slowly and nervously while biting her lips. Naraku smiled at her before looking down at the floor.

"You are correct.." Naraku lowered the bags. "Going by centimeter increments would show the same trend."

"Buuuuuuut you're still going to make me do all two hundred,"

"Hell no. I have to teach you, which means I am in the same boat as you. Two hundred samples will be two-thousand by Monday, and that doesn't include the last fraction which is an entirely different process than the first three." Naraku explained. "I'm sadistic, not suicidal."

"So, half?"

"Half." he agreed. "We still need over a thousand bottles to be cleaned and labeled. Follow me."

 **000000**

"You've never weighed sediment before?" Naraku asked, picking up one of the labeled tubes with sediment in them.

"No. I mean, weighing these out to exactly a thousandth of a gram is aggravating, but not hard." Jade answered as she packed her notebooks and books into her backpack.

"You did it so quickly."

"Sorry?" Jade answered uncertainly. She wasn't sure where he was getting at, but she didn't have time to decipher Naraku's bullshit, nor did she have the patience. She was getting ready to meet up with Koga to attempt to smooth things over with him, so she needed all of her energy to focus on that knob instead.

"No, I'm impressed." Naraku stated, placing the tube back into the styrofoam holder alongside its brethren. Jade's smile activated before she could stop it. But at the same time, receiving a compliment from Naraku was exciting and rare. He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow. "But like you said, it isn't hard."

"Can you just...let me have this one? Please?" Jade's smile was now a frustrated scowl and her hands were balled into fists.

"Do you honestly crave my acceptance so badly?" Naraku teased, but Jade knew he smelled blood in the water. It was time to abort.

"No, I just wanted one nice thing to tell my roommate so she wouldn't use you for her competitive bitch-toss practice."

"I would love to see her try."

"I know you would." Jade pulled her backpack on as she headed to the door. "See you Friday, Daddy."

"Stop that." Naraku bit. The door was closing, but Jade quickly shoved her hand into the opening, flashing him the middle finger before shutting the door. Naraku waited a moment to make sure she wouldn't do it again before snorting and smiling.

Jade walked through the spinning door of the coffee shop, pulling her sunglasses from her face and hooking them onto the collar of her shirt. She saw a hand wave and nodded, heading in the direction of Koga. She placed her backpack in the vacant seat beside the window and sat in the chair next to the isle, across from Koga. The tables and chairs were all made of a dark, thick wood, and the shop building was made of entirely red brick, which had various paintings of flowers, comic book characters, and celebrities spread across each wall. The light from the tall windows and door at the front illuminated the shop well, but each table had its own little lamp with lace shades for the evening hours. Jade grabbed a menu from the other end of the table and inhaled deeply. She had only been in the shop once or twice, so she barely remembered what was served other than every coffee imaginable.

"Hey," Koga said, breaking the awkward silence.

"Heyyyy," Jade's answer was dragged out and her skepticism leaked into her tone. Koga held up a hand and closed his eyes.

"I know, I know. I come in peace." he said.

"I feel like my friend shouldn't have to tell me that." Jade responded in a small voice. Koga opened his eyes, but looked away and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right." he agreed. "Are we friends, though?"

The question drove a knife through Jade's heart and she stared back at him; a mixture of anger, shock, and betrayal stirring in her chest. Still, she smiled...or was it a grin? A part of her wanted to leave, but she couldn't. Not yet.

"You're the one who started this." Jade said calmly as she pointed at him vehemently.

"Yeah, and I've been trying to talk to you about it and you've dodged me every time."

"Mm, I can't imagine why," Jade replied, her hands cupped together as she rested her elbows on the table. She used her cupped hands to cover her mouth. She could still see a faint purple color on his cheek and she didn't want him to see her fighting away her smile.

"Look, what I did was impulsive,"

"And stupid, and hurtful, and completely out of line." Jade added. "You asked me to throw it for you."

"I know!"

"And your ass hasn't admitted that to anyone, has it?"

"No." Koga exhaled. "Not yet."

"So, why am I here? You don't think we're friends, you haven't admitted to your breaking of the rules,"

"Neither have you."

"You have no evidence other than a joke made by my friend who knows nothing about fighting games. I have no evidence on you other than everyone knows exactly how you are. Yet, you cast the first stone."

"You weren't going to tell anyone? Really?" Koga asked her aggressively.

"No. So, let me get this straight, you got paranoid and instead of trusting me as your friend, you decided to make your move first, make me miserable, piss off a portion of our viewers and donors, unite the fighting game community against yourself, and because none of that went your way, you cut my hours at work, tried to act like nothing had happened, and then when you realized that wasn't working, you decided to invite me here to talk things out, just to tell me you don't think we're friends and that you haven't and probably won't admit to breaking the rules, but you will make damn sure that I'm held responsible. Is that about right?" Jade recited venomously, indicating each infraction with her fingers.

"You didn't hang out with us as much as you said you would, you've been focused on your science stuff, and you're friends with Kagome, who I'm trying to date, and,"

"Stop." Jade interrupted, holding her hand up. "If this stems from the fact that she has told you no, mind you, without me telling her anything about you because the night she told you no, you promised to stream with us and I had no idea you were going for her...I can't believe you. I'm done." Jade stood from the table abruptly.

"Jade, I'm sorry!" Koga said loudly. Jade stared back at him.

"What do you want from me?"

"I just want this all to stop, okay? Your silence has made this worse on every front, especially at work."

"I don't feel bad."

"That's fine! I just...what can I do to make this right?" Koga asked. Jade pulled her backpack on and shook her head while grinning.

"You know what you need to do. When you do it, I'll be ready to talk, and we can smooth this over before we lose too many viewers or Pack members. We've lost three members already."

"Can you at least talk to Ginta? He's been a mess because you won't."

"I still don't feel bad. Neither of you considered my feelings in the situation."

"You know he cares about you, Jade. Come on. He's had feelings for you for years." Koga insisted with a whine. Jade placed both hands on the table and leaned in.

"And neither of you considered my feelings." she repeated slowly and seriously. Koga closed his mouth and swallowed hard, but he broke eye contact first, looked down at the table and nodded.

"I'll set things straight, Jade. I promise. Just, is there a way...can we work through this? As friends? Is there still a chance for that?"

"Show me that you want to. I didn't pull this shit. You did." Jade responded bitterly as she turned around to leave the shop. She placed her sunglasses on and pushed through the door to walk back to campus and her car. She tried to think of things that made her happy; her loyal viewers, Sango and Kagome, Sango's cat, Kirara, learning about the different microscopic lifeforms and how they survive, Naraku's compliment….

 _'He's made me smile more in the past month than my close friend of six years. Gross.'_ Jade gave a small laugh, wiping away the few tears that had fallen down her face.

 **000000**

Bitter! It was so incredibly bitter! Naraku had tasted countless teas and coffees, and plenty of cuisines, but the purple liquid was so bitter, it was almost otherworldly. It didn't taste like it belonged on Earth and it certainly didn't act like it, either. The other week it was crystallizing, then the crystals dissolved, and now it was back at its stable liquid form. It was so baffling to Naraku that he had stopped being angry about it days ago.

"It was just a drop," he complained, swishing a shot of cheap vodka around in his mouth before spitting it back into the cup. The bitterness didn't care, as the taste still crept through his mouth. He didn't know why he wanted to taste it, but he did. Naraku decided to take a nap after his Research Methods class to give himself some extra energy for the extractions later that evening and when he woke up, the idea appeared in his head, as if someone hit a switch. Taste it. Does it taste like blood or does it taste earthy? Does it even have a taste? Would it make him sick or crystallize his tongue?

"It just deepened my regret, is all. Foolish me." Naraku said in a low voice, taking the cup of cheap vodka and saliva to the kitchen. He cleaned the cup and placed it on the drying rack, glancing at the time on his microwave. It was four. He had an hour to pack and prepare himself before meeting Jade in the lab.

Naraku pulled out a pair of worn jeans and slipped them on. He tossed a couple pairs of boxers, a couple of T-shirts, his deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste onto his bed. After brushing his hair, he added the brush to the pile. He folded his clothes neatly, pressing out any wrinkles, and placed them in a black duffle bag. He placed his toothbrush in its protective container and dropped it in his bag with his other items.

 _'I'll come home and shower during one of our breaks,'_ he decided, hanging his towel up. _'I can feed the angry pig then, too.'_

He sliced through an apple quickly, eating a slice and carrying another to the guinea pig's cage. Normally, the pig would almost fly out of his plastic igloo and grab his food enthusiastically, but ever since his encounter with the gem, the guinea pig was apprehensive about Naraku's presence.

"You act like I'm going to eat you." Naraku scolded the pig softly, wiggling the slice of apple enticingly. He could hear the agitated teeth-chattering, so he dropped the slice in the food bowl on top of the pellets. The guinea pig would eat it eventually. Naraku walked back to the kitchen and finished cutting various fruits and veggies, scraping them into individual bags and then placing all of those into a bigger bag.

Once he finished gathering his clothes, food, and papers for his thesis and classes, Naraku placed the bags of his items on the couch, checking his phone. He was going to be late, but it didn't matter. Because of his insistence, though much to Jade's annoyance, all the bottles they needed were cleaned, labeled, and ready, and the sediment samples had been weighed out and prepared. That meant that when the samples had to sit or shake for an hour or two, he and Jade could actually take a break to nap or work on assignments, instead of worrying about cleaning the next batch of bottles while mixing and buffering the chemicals for the following rounds of extraction torture.

 _'I wish I could figure out what to do with the blood solution. My first problem was breaking the gem down and now that I have, I'm stuck again.'_ Naraku walked to his office and picked up the glass tube holding said solution, gently swishing it around. He didn't want to leave it, but he didn't want to risk Jade finding out, either. Then, an idea popped into his head.

"I could mix a drop of it with the pig's water. He is a guinea pig, I am a scientist, and I need to observe what this would do, if anything, to a living organism." Naraku said aloud, still swishing the liquid around. But, he still couldn't do it now. He wouldn't be home to observe anything. He also doubted the guinea pig would fall for it. The animal seemed to sense it or smell it on Naraku, because he avoided his keeper at all costs whenever Naraku handled the liquid. If Naraku mixed it with the water, he was sure the guinea pig would choose dehydration over touching anything that smelled like the solution. No. He needed something unbiased, something that had no idea about it, therefore, couldn't taint or fix any results, and something he could keep an eye on for long periods of time.

 _'Something like Jade. She can be my guinea pig.'_

 **000000**

"Goodbye, cat. I'm sure you won't miss me." Jade stated jokingly as she held Kirara in the air. Kirara mewed and flicked her tail in response.

"She likes you. Otherwise, she'd never let you hold her like that." Sango remarked, fluffing up her hair with her hands. She had just returned home from work and changed clothes just in time to bid Jade good luck and goodbye.

"I found a box for you." Jade said to the cat, placing her on the floor and grabbing said box from the dining table. She dropped it on the floor and within seconds, Kirara launched herself inside. Jade giggled and looked at Sango, who was giving the wall the thousand-yard stare. Jade opened her mouth to say something, but Sango's eyes darted back to her.

"I don't like this," she began, prompting an immediate groan from Jade.

"It's fine. I will be fine. I'll send you texts."

"You're not going to be honest about it."

"Look, from what I've read, this extraction process was sponsored by Satan and Hitler, so I could be teamed up with the nicest person in the world, and still be miserable." Jade pointed out, her hands resting on her hips.

"That's true, I guess." Sango relented, deciding to let this discussion go. She didn't want to upset Jade more than she already was. "What will you do about art class on Monday?"

"I'll be there," Jade sang with uncertainty. "Physically."

"I can't wait to see what your drawings look like when you're sleep deprived." Sango snickered. Jade pursed her lips and shook her head in response. "Oh, Kagome made cookies for you! I almost forgot!" Sango ran to the fridge and pulled out a tupperware container with various cookies inside.

"Holy shit." Jade said, taking the box gingerly, as if it was so pure her touch would taint it.

"She also said to let her know when you're hungry. She'll bring you food so you're not driving while exhausted."

"Alright."

"Don't share them with Naraku." Sango ordered, pointing at the container of cookies.

"He doesn't eat sweets...I think." Jade said. "Anyway, you have fun on your trip to the Not-A-Sex-Dungeon with Miroku."

"We're going to an aquarium and I'm going to draw something I see there. What are you going to draw in the middle of your science stuff?"

"My tears."

"You have a warped sense of humor."

"I have to cope somehow."

"Touche'."

Jade closed her car door and waved to Sango, who backed up and drove away first. Jade pulled her seatbelt on and inhaled deeply. She wanted to be ready for this, she wanted to be able to look herself in the eyes in her rearview mirror and tell herself she was ready like she did at any tournament...but it would be a lie. Jade gripped her steering wheel and looked down for a moment, trying to control her breathing.

 _'He won't do anything. He wants to get this done just as much as I do. He won't hurt me. He won't.'_ Jade tried to reassure herself, but the trembling in her hands had already begun. Up until this point, she had spent limited time with Naraku on purpose. She didn't mind the night they got high together because he was actually somewhat pleasant after he was done being upset, of course. Her time spent with him had been hours, not days, and those hours felt like eternities. Naraku exhausted her mentally more often than not.

"I'll survive." Jade said aloud. She felt the pressure leave her chest for a moment. She could believe that much. It was going to be agonizing, but she would survive.

 **A/N - Thanks for the kind reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying this story.**


	15. The Downward Spiral

**The Downward Spiral**

 **A/N - The website was being a knob and didn't send out an alert for Chapter 14. So, check that out before this one if you haven't.**

"And so it begins," Naraku announced, turning the shaker on. Jade was glad it was a quiet machine. She wasn't sure she could take multiple hours of a loud humming noise and Naraku's provocative tactics. She dropped her used gloves in the nearest trash can and slid her goggles off her face.

"So, it looks like there's a six hour break during Fraction Three?" Jade asked. Naraku nodded and removed his goggles, placing them on the table beside him.

"Getting there is the trick, though."

"How many extractions have you done? You almost don't even need the instructions."

"Overall extractions or just Phosphorus? I've lost count. I conducted my first Phosphorus extraction when I was a freshman." Naraku replied, taking a sip of tea from his mug. He had hooked up a small warming plate, cranked the heat up, and boiled some tea for both of them. He did it more for himself, but Jade actually asked for tea this time instead of him just pouring her some.

"Wow. Well, I guess I'll find something to do."

"What have you brought to entertain yourself?" Naraku asked, nodding towards Jade's third backpack. She already told him one was for clothes, and the other was for schoolwork, but she didn't disclose the third bag.

"My laptop, some speakers, external hard drive, a camera, various cords," Jade listed off.

"Are you going to stream here?"

"Nooooo. I might edit some videos, though." Jade pointed to her second bag. "But schoolwork comes first."

After Jade finished the rest of her O-Chem homework, she and Naraku gathered the papers, writing utensils, and various other items from the main table and stacked them on Naraku's former desk. They were going to need the entire table and the island beside the table. One by one, Jade carefully placed the bottles in descending numerical order; starting with the top sediment measurement and counting down to the lowest depth. Naraku had started mixing the solution needed for the next part inside the fume hood. Jade hurried to finish her task so she could watch him. Watching Naraku do anything scientific was extremely satisfying. He was fast, precise, and he made it look so easy. It was poetry in motion.

 _'I wonder if he would agree to make an instructional video doing something cool?'_ Jade stood beside him and glanced up at him. _'Probably not.'_

"What is this?" Naraku asked her, looking at her as he steadily poured a clear liquid into a massive beaker.

"Magnesium Chloride?"

"Yes." he answered, smiling at her. Jade felt the painful pressure in her chest slowly deflate. He was being so encouraging. It was nice, but also weird. Naraku slid over and offered her a glass rod. She took it and reached into the fume hood, stirring the solution Naraku had created. Naraku moved over to the counter beside the fume hood, cleaning and rinsing out two pipettes. They were the models Naraku used for adding exact measurements of liquids.

"I get to use a cool one?" Jade leaned over to get a better look.

"Lightly press to absorb the exact amount; hard press to eject." Naraku explained, demonstrating with the water he was using to rinse them out. "I've already set the dial to absorb the needed amount, but you twist the button to increase or decrease the intake amounts."

"Cool." Jade said, taking the pipette from Naraku to examine it. She left the glass rod in the beaker so she could slowly twist the pipette button. She turned it back to the amount Naraku had chosen and placed the pipette back onto the towel next to its twin.

Naraku switched the shaking machine off and handed Jade one plastic bag, which held half of the tubes of sediment and liquid. He picked up the other and carried it to the other side of the table where he had his half of the bottles set up. Jade pulled a pair of purple latex gloves on and Naraku pulled on blue ones, clearing his throat.

"This is our first decanting process. The most efficient way to do this is to organize your tubes into the styrofoam holders first, take off all the caps, and place those in the same order to make sure they go back to the tubes they belong to. When you decant from the tubes, pour gently and make sure no sediment drops into the bottle."

"What if I can't drain all of the liquid without the sediment falling in?"

"Then we centrifuge them. But if we do that, we have to take additional time to bash the tubes against various surfaces to break up the sediment again so it fully reacts." Naraku explained with a sigh. "If we could avoid that process, our lives will be much easier."

"I remember watching you do that earlier this summer." Jade said, looking down at her portion of tubes. She opened the bag holding them and began pulling them out to organize them numerically. Naraku started doing the same; his movements quick and fluid while Jade's were slower and robotic.

Jade didn't know how or why, but time seemed to slow down when they began decanting. Was it because she was moving slowly to make sure she wasn't going to mess up? Was it because the process, despite being easy, required steady hands, which Jade didn't have? Before she joined The Pack as WeedWolf, Jade had used the gamertag, "Triggered_Fingers," because her hands and fingers were usually shaky and tense; ready to react to video game nonsense. Her hands usually reacted to a visual stimuli before she recognized what it was.

 _'Of course he's done.'_ Jade lamented, side-glancing at Naraku, who was screwing the caps back on his portion of nalgene bottles. Jade huffed, but she pushed forward. She figured she would get faster the more she did it.

"Hey," Jade shot at Naraku, who had moved to the other side of the table, plucking a tube from her group. He stopped moving entirely, staring back at her. "I can't get better if you won't let me."

"But I want to be finished before next year." Naraku said back seriously.

"No, put it back. Let me practice." Jade insisted, picking up her next tube.

"How about I do a third of yours?"

"How about no?"

"Fine." Naraku placed the tube back into its slot and strode around the table towards Jade, who was expecting his reaction. For the umpteenth time since she met him, she fought away a smile and snort. Naraku was so predictable at this point that it was funny to her. He now stood right behind her, slightly leaned over her left shoulder and silently judging her. Jade could almost feel his snide comments hitting the back of her neck alongside his breath….then he started gently blowing into her ear and behind it, causing her to twitch and rub away the tickling sensation with her shoulder, which prevented her from pouring.

"It's going to take me longer if you keep doing this!" Jade laughed, leaning away from him.

"Point taken." Naraku agreed, moving past her towards the fume hood. He lifted the giant beaker full of the new chemical to add to the tubes and placed it on the small island behind Jade. He moved his portion of samples to the island and cleared his throat loudly.

"I'm tryiiiiiiiing!" Jade whined, moving onto her next tube.

When Jade finally finished her portion of decanting, it was time to inject more chemicals back into the tubes to let them shake again. Again, Naraku finished his portion before she finished hers, and again, he tried various forms of annoying her until she finished.

"Are the lids tightened?" Naraku asked her, poking a few of her tubes.

"As tight as I could get them."

"Good. Back into the bags and onto the shaker they go."

 **000000**

Naraku lay on the short couch lazily, his right leg hanging over the arm and his left leg planted on the floor. He had his left arm folded under his head and his right one repeatedly tossed a stress ball into the air and caught it.

 _'My organic matter shows the same anomalies my dissolved slides showed; the microbes are various purple colors and all of them are the dominant species. How is that possible?'_ Naraku wondered with irritation. He had spent his last two-hour break using the lab's very expensive, high-powered microscope. The best feature about it? It took excellent pictures and videos, which were necessary for his conference posters, presentations, and his thesis paper. It was much better than aiming his cell phone's camera through the eyepieces. He turned his head when the lab door jiggled and opened carefully. Jade came bouncing in with a wide grin on her face.

"What are you doing?" Naraku questioned her. She was carrying a plastic knife and a petri dish holding moist green moss. She pranced to the microscope immediately.

"Looking for water bears!" she answered, turning to him excitedly. Naraku rolled his eyes and groaned with disgust, but when Jade turned back to the microscope, the corners of his mouth turned upward.

 _'She's like a child. I suppose I can keep my judgments to myself about her water bears.'_ he decided. She reminded him of himself when he first saw algae under a microscope. He would often venture to nearby ponds or streams, or even the flooded paddy fields of the local farmers, and scoop up water, soil, sediment, moss; anything that could have life. Naraku imagined Jade was feeling what he felt; the excitement of discovery - even if it was unimportant to others.

"Can you show me how to work the microscope?" Jade asked him.

"You're tech savvy; figure it out."

"I don't want to break it."

"Turn it on. The knobs on the side raise the stage. The knobs above those focus your sights."

"If I break it, I'm blaming it on you."

"And Bruce will believe you."

"Did you know that water bears are also called, "moss piglets?" It's adorable."

"I had nooooooo idea, Jade." Naraku cooed sarcastically, tossing the stress ball up once more and catching it stiffly. He heard her giggle at his response and shook his head. Was there anything he could say to upset her or was he a joke to her now?

"Hey, I'm only just now learning and I'm stuck with you, so I'm going to share my excitement with you." Jade said back. "Whether you like it or not."

"Go back to your water bear search. Quietly." Naraku responded.

Within minutes, Jade had not only figured out and focused the microscope, but she also figured out how to activate the camera and display its sights onto the computer's monitor. Bruce had to show Naraku how to operate the camera when he first joined the lab, but after watching her videos, Naraku wasn't surprised that Jade figured it out, though he was still bitter.

"Have you found one yet?" Naraku asked mockingly.

"Oh, you'll know." Jade replied, seemingly unaware of his tone. Or, maybe she didn't care.

A little while later, Naraku was standing at the sink, splashing some water on his face. Laying on the couch had started to convince his body to sleep, so he needed to wake up. It was already nearly midnight and Fraction I still had one more water rinse session, meaning it would be almost four in the morning before the samples were ready for Fraction II. It made his eyes ache just thinking about it.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Jade hooted, almost rocketing herself to the ceiling from the chair as both of her hands shot up in the air.

"Found one?" Naraku assumed, drying his hands and face before walking towards her.

"Found two! Look at how wiggly they are!" she corrected. She pointed at the monitor and framed the area she wanted the camera to zoom in on. Naraku tilted his head. Sure enough, there were two of the eight-legged critters wiggling around the green moss chunks.

"Where did you scrape your sample from?"

"The little pond area in front of the library." Jade said. She gasped when she saw one water bear squirming on the surface of the dish, but it wasn't moving. "Oh no! Jerry! Is he hurt?"

"No. Water bears can't walk very well on slick surfaces." Naraku answered, looking into the eyepieces to see how well Jade had centered and focused the scope.

"Aww, come on, Jerry! Larry, get over here and help Jerry!"

"Zoom in on Jerry," Naraku told her, spotting something odd about the water bear's shape. Jade aimed the frame around him and hit the zoom key until the water bear took up most of the screen.

"What is that mass on him? Is it something he ate? A tumor?" Jade quizzed, pointing the mass at the end of its abdomen.

"Those," Naraku paused, pointing at the pale spherical blobs inside the mass with his finger. "Those are eggs."

"Oooh! Jerry! You're a Carrie!"

"Your future children are going to hate you for their names."

"Eat me, Naraku. Carrie and Larry love their names."

"Blow me, Jade. They're abysmal." Naraku shot back. "You have twenty minutes before we decant again."

"Okay. I'll take some pictures and a short video and put them back in the pond."

 **000000**

 _'I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay,'_ Jade chanted silently, bouncing from one foot to the other and back again. She had taken a short nap, but then Naraku woke her and told her they had ten minutes to prepare for the next decant. They began Fraction II around four in the morning and this was its first decanting session. Jade had stayed up for long periods of time before, but video games were engaging. This? This was Hell. Not super hot fires burning flesh off, not frozen areas so cold that they burned, and no demons torturing people with sharp tools. No. Hell was this extraction process. Unscrew caps. Add chemicals. Screw caps back on. Shake for two hours. Unscrew caps. Decant. Add chemicals. Screw caps back on. Shake for two hours. Unscrew caps. Decant. Add more chemicals. Screw caps back on. Shake for two more hours. Don't commit suicide. Unscrew caps. Fuck your sanity. It was worse than she imagined.

"Here we go," Naraku announced, handing her bag of samples to her.

"You said you've lost count of how many of these you've done? Extractions?" Jade asked, now organizing her tubes back into their styrofoam slots. It was almost time to unscrew the caps again. Jade blinked a few times to remind her brain to keep them open.

"Yes."

"I think I understand why you're so sadistic now." Jade said with a loud sigh. "You've suffered so much doing these that you need to make someone else hurt too."

For the first time since they got high, Naraku laughed a deep, genuine laugh. This episode went on a little longer and he didn't even try to stop it. He smiled widely while organizing his tubes into their slots.

"You have no idea." he told her.

"Don't get me wrong. I love science, but this is probably the worst thing I've done in my life. Well, I had a bad hangover one time, but this is definitely worse."

"Oh, my sweet summer child," Naraku recited softly. "This is science."

"This fucking sucks."

Despite her exhaustion, Jade's decanting skills had improved greatly. She still wasn't as efficient as Naraku was, and probably never would be, but she was taking half the time she started off taking. That also helped cut their time down in general. Her pipette skills still needed improvement, though. Jade had spaced out at one point and injected too much Magnesium Chloride into a sample and almost had a meltdown over it. Naraku watched her quietly and waited for her to calm down before telling her it was fine. He then took her pipette from her and when the sediment had settled, he carefully suctioned the excess liquid from the tube. They wrote down which sample it was, which Fraction, and which process so they could toss out that data point later if it was clearly ruined.

"Tired already?" Naraku asked Jade when she collapsed backwards on the couch.

"You're not?" Jade grumbled.

"No." he lied. Naraku walked out of the lab to take a few laps around the building and keep himself awake. The lights on every floor in the building had been turned off with the exception of display cases or informational videos. He hopped in place a few times before taking off as fast as he could, feet pounding the floor. When he reached the end of the hall, he slowed down to a jog to safely turn the corner. He jogged the short hall and when he was about to reach the other long hallway, he sped up and took off again.

 _'Maybe I shouldn't drug her with the solution. It might be poisonous.'_ Naraku had been going back and forth on the idea of using Jade as his, "guinea pig." He even packed the solution up securely with his other items because, at the time, he was sold on the idea. It was different now and he didn't know what convinced him not to. Part of him said, "She will be surrounded by people and if anything happens, she will be helped." Yet, a deeper part of him also argued, "But what if it causes any kind of organ failure? A blood clot? Brain damage? Can I handle knowing I killed her?"

"Hm?" Naraku stopped at the end of the hall entirely when he heard voices. It wasn't uncommon for students to stay in the building when working on projects, but it was also unlikely this early in the semester. He stood in place, straining his ears. There was the middle hallway that featured a terrarium and an aquarium, and an informational video about the creatures in those tanks was always playing on loop, so he figured it was the video. But, when he was ready to take off again, he heard a different voice, louder than the distant video.

"There she is," someone whispered. "It's WeedWolf."

 _'Someone is here?'_ Naraku frowned, but then his already-pumping heart jumped. _'I left the door open! She's asleep!'_

Lurching forward, he ran the short hallway and prepared himself to turn, and when he did, he heard her gasp, but he couldn't stop himself. Naraku slammed into Jade, taking her down with him as he fell forward. He heard the thump when she hit the floor and felt a sharp pain ring through his knee when he tried to catch himself, but Jade's body had cushioned most of his fall.

"Wh-What," Naraku panted, pushing himself up from her body with his hands. "I thought you were asleep!"

"I was! I heard footsteps and came looking for you!" Jade whined. She sat up after Naraku moved away from her. They both stood, rubbing the sore areas on their bodies.

"Why did you come looking for me?"

"I thought someone else was in the building."

"Who?"

"Do I look like I could fight someone? I didn't want to find out by myself."

"Did you tell anyone you would be here? Friends? Fans?"

"Just my roommates. Why?"

"I thought I heard something, but maybe it was you." Naraku said carefully. He knew what he heard, but he had no explanation for it. Jade would have seen them if she was already outside the lab. Naraku didn't hear any additional footsteps, either.

 _'Maybe it's my exhaustion.'_

Both students walked back to their lab, closing the door behind them. They still had a while before the samples needed rinsed, but neither felt exhausted anymore. Naraku was able to walk the soreness out of his knee, but he knew a nasty bruise would appear within the hour.

"You hit like a fucking truck, man." Jade complained as she rubbed her chest.

"I'm bigger than you, and I was running at full-speed, so yes, I'm going to hit hard if I run into you." Naraku pointed out simply.

"I'm dying." Jade whimpered. Naraku watched as her body went limp playfully; her eyes staring listlessly at the ceiling. His stomach churned and a bout of nausea overwhelmed him.

 _'I can't do it.'_ he admitted. But, a voice, his own, whispered back, "Well, you can. You just won't...yet."

 **000000**

Once he turned the shaker back on, Naraku looked at Jade, who was collapsed facedown on the couch. She was sleeping so heavily and motionless that Naraku was able to stack several books on her back without them toppling over. He grabbed the meter stick and stood on the end of the couch where her feet lay against the arm of the couch. Resting the tip of the corner of the stick on her left calf, Naraku lightly traced a snake-like path up to her hamstring.

"Bugs!" Jade snapped, reaching back to, "kill the bug," and causing the stack of books to collapse onto her. Naraku held the stick against his shoulder, chuckling as Jade cursed at him. She slowly turned and carefully rolled off the couch onto her hands and knees.

"Good morning, sunshine." Naraku stated tauntingly. She held her middle finger up as a response. "It's time for breakfast."

"Coming." Jade grumbled, remaining completely still. He didn't like that, so he started tapping the end of the stick on various parts of her body, each tap striking harder and harder. Jade snatched the stick and held it tightly.

"As you wish," Naraku turned and pulled her along the floor with the stick. The floors of the building were smooth, so it made dragging her all the easier. He glanced back and would have thought her to be dead had she not been gripping the stick with her right hand. Her eyes were closed and her limbs were slightly spread apart.

"Kill me, Naraku." she pleaded. For a split second, the thought of the dark purple solution flashed in his head.

"That's too merciful." he replied. "You might want to stand now, unless you want me to drag you across the concrete."

"You would like that, wouldn't you?"

"Very much so."

"Okay." Jade let go of the meter stick and pushed herself to her feet. Naraku held back a chuckle when he heard the harsh stomping of her feet indicating her exhaustion and sour mood.

 _'Honestly, she's handling this rather well for it being her first extraction experience.'_ Naraku glanced back at her again. Her eyes were closed, her long, brown hair was pulled into a disheveled ponytail, her white, stained lab coat was slightly hanging off her right shoulder, and her loose jeans were dragging along the sidewalk. She looked like a glorious mess. He stopped walking and braced himself for impact. Jade walked into him, jumping back and gasping.

"What's your deal?" Jade hissed at him angrily, her hand pressed to her chest.

"You're making this too easy for me. I cannot resist." Naraku admitted. "Whenever I see an opportunity, my blood starts pumping, my skin itches, and until I act, I receive no relief."

"You need to masturbate more often. Jeez." Jade growled at him harmlessly.

"What is with your obsession over my masturbation practices?"

"Shut up." she said, pushing past him towards the Commons area. Naraku grinned and took two wide strides to catch up with her.

"I think you like me."

"I think you're reading too much into things. You've watched some of my videos, right?" she asked as she opened the door to the eating area.

"Yes."

"Do you hear half of the horrible shit I say on there or do you just mute it and masturbate to our faces instead?"

"Point taken." Naraku said. "Though, you explicitly avoided saying, "No," again."

"I like hating you. It feels good." Jade was heading towards the Burger King line, but Naraku grabbed her by the collar and tugged her with him to the family-owned outlet.

"Carbs will only make you feel worse. You need protein." Naraku scolded her, keeping a grip on her collar.

"You and Sango have a lot in common."

"We work out at the same gym; end of similarities."

"You both also bitch at me about my food choices."

"If you would make better decisions, we would have nothing to bitch about."

The aroma of sausage and eggs filled the lab when the suffering students popped open their styrofoam containers. Naraku harped on Jade to buy the turkey sausage option, but she went with the usual fatty option of regular sausage to spite him.

 _'Had he asked nicely like Sango, I would have got the turkey.'_ Jade thought with amusement, savoring the first bite of her sausage. Her stomach was roiling with hunger and she intended to satisfy it with greasy, fatty food. She took a long sip of her chocolate milk, closing her eyes. It tasted like heaven.

 **000000**

The cold water shocked Naraku's body enough to revitalize him for the moment. He faced the shower head, slowly brushing his black mane with his fingers to soak it completely. A whole day had passed since he last slept and he had already chewed through most of his snacks, so Naraku decided to go home, shower, feed the guinea pig, and grab more food for this break.

Naraku walked into his spare room, twisting his hair into a single, thick cord with a towel. The solution hadn't changed color or form for days. He brought the solution back home with him because he decided this wasn't the time to test it on Jade. But, then he paused.

 _'A single drop; it cannot be that dangerous.'_ Naraku placed it back into its case and took it with him. _'It was bitter, but it did nothing else to my mouth.'_

Naraku approached the lab and saw the door was opened halfway. He pushed it open and then returned it to its half-opened position. Jade was eating a bowl of chili and watching a video on her laptop. Her hair was also wet, so she must have followed Naraku's lead with the shower break.

"Hey," Jade chirped. Naraku nodded back at her and placed his bag down on the desk.

"What are you watching?" he quizzed when he heard the excessive, frantic cursing of a whiny man's voice echoing from her laptop. It sounded like the whiny moron who was usually with Koga at the gym.

"Some footage of my latest stream. We made Ginta play a scary game and he can't handle that stuff."

"You sound like a wonderful friend."

"He deserved it." Jade shrugged.

"Did you take classes to learn how to stream and edit videos?"

"Nope. Self-taught." Jade took a bite of chili. "There wasn't much to do where I grew up. Small town, barely any kids my age, and I can only hike the same trails so many times before I memorized the place so well that it's impossible to get lost, which removes any excitement from the hike."

"Oh." Naraku blinked after staring at her for a moment. He expected an answer, but not one so revealing. It sounded very familiar, too.

 _'Replace video games with science experiments and it's me.'_ he noted.

"I mean, I've played video games since I was little, but I turned it into a job when I was fourteen...fifteen." she continued, ignoring Naraku's blatant staring. She stirred her chili before taking another bite and finally acknowledging Naraku. "What?"

"Nothing." he said quickly. "I can relate. I grew up in a small village where everyone's hobbies were fishing, farming, healing, or warding off evil spirits."

"Yup! Mine is more livestock than farming, but we have the healers, too. Ours like to use quartz crystals."

"A mountain town?" Naraku asked, raising an eyebrow. Jade nodded while giggling.

"Yours, too?"

"Indeed. I didn't have constant Internet access, though. I had entertain myself with other...hobbies."

"Arson?" Jade shot jokingly.

"Let's just say that many unexplainable events occurred and those events may or may not have been the reason an exorcist moved in."

"Hahaha, I shouldn't be laughing, but you're good. You're good."

"What? You were never up to no good?" Naraku quizzed.

"I did things, but not to the point that we needed a local exorcist." Jade retorted. Pushing her empty bowl aside, Jade cleared her throat. "I need to know something, though. Please be honest,"

"When have I ever been deceitful?"

"Cute." Jade snipped. "Dude, where do you get your weed? I know you don't grow it in your apartment, so either you have a connection or you have a spot out in some random field or - where are you going?"

"Come with me." Naraku insisted, wagging his finger at her invitingly. Jade trotted after him, closing the door behind her. They walked to the other side of the building where the main stairways and elevator resided. Naraku stepped onto the elevator and hit the button for the top floor.

 _'The Biology Department?'_ Jade frowned, but she knew better than to doubt Naraku's ability to skirt illegal activity by watchful eyes. She was very curious now. How could a bunch of biologists not notice pot growing in their rooms?

"I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong." he said, stepping off the elevator and turning to the left to the north end of the building. There was an off-white door with, "To the Roof," written in red letters.

"You're kidding me. The roof? Don't they have a telescope up there? How does nobody see it?" Jade's questions fired off before she could stop any of them. She knew it was because she was tired, but she needed to be careful; it was still Naraku she was speaking to.

"There is a telescope," he answered as he climbed the set of cement steps. "There is something else, too."

"Mm," Jade hummed skeptically. Naraku pushed the door open and stepped to the side while holding the door. Jade stepped out onto the roof and felt her mouth hit the roof while her eyebrows flew up into the sky. "There's a greenhouse up here?"

"I'm shocked you've never noticed." Naraku remarked with a snort.

"I'm short." Jade shot back.

"I have a deal with one of the botany professors; I grow the weed and he gets half."

"To himself?"

"He has a permit to conduct research on marijuana and the various effects it can have for various situations. I did my own research and showed him that I could grow it better." Naraku explained. He crossed his arms and looked back at Jade. "Though, I'm sure he shares some with his colleagues. Actually, I wouldn't be shocked if Bruce has smoked from at least one crop of mine without even knowing it."

"Bruce gets down?" Jade asked with a wide smile. Naraku arched an eyebrow, now stroking his chin.

"Rarely. You didn't hear it from me."

"Got it." Jade agreed. Then, she started laughing. It escalated and soon, she was doubled over and tears were leaking from her eyes.

"Get a hold of yourself." Naraku scolded her, but his tone was soft.

"I caaaaaaaaan't!" she wailed back. Naraku turned his back to her so he could smile in peace.

 **000000**

 _'This is my last chance,'_ Naraku reminded himself. _'She's asleep. She will go to class and come back to finish up with me. She will be monitored. Nothing will happen.'_ He already had a small plastic syringe with a single drop of the solution sitting by his hand. The aroma of brewing tea had filled the room; the boiling liquid was the only noise in the lab at the time. Naraku had insisted that Jade get some rest before class while he stacked their one-thousand bottles on two multi-shelved carts. He was going to store them in one of the classroom's closets to keep them from being tampered with.

"I shouldn't." he whispered, closing his eyes. Naraku thought he preferred doing extractions by himself, but after performing one with Jade, he was beginning to think it was because his past partners were incompetent and lazy. Jade worked to become faster with the pipette, faster with decanting, and a bit more confident in her mixing skills. She read the instructions beforehand. She took notes. She listened to him, asked him questions, and…

 _'It can't be me. It has to be her. I need to know or I can't move forward.'_ Naraku forced all of his uneasiness and hesitations back into the depths of his mind. Jade was his assistant, a good one, but just an assistant. He squeezed the drop into her mug and poured the steaming tea in with it. He poured himself a cup and let it cool alongside hers.

"Jade," Naraku said, tapping her on the forehead. "It's almost time for class."

"Mm, how long?" she grumbled, opening one eye.

"Twenty minutes. I figured you wanted to wake up before leaving."

"I want to die."

"So dramatic. I made some very strong tea, by the way. It should help your energy for class at least."

"Hell yeah." Jade quickly rolled off the couch onto her hands and feet, walking on all fours to the table to grab her mug. "Did you drug it?"

Naraku's blood ran cold, but he quickly calmed himself by reminding himself she asked that every time he made her tea. "Do I ever?" he asked back.

"True." Jade shrugged and took a sip. Naraku had to hold back a laugh when her face contorted as she thrust the mug away from her face. "The fuck is this?"

"Very strong. Should I brew you the weenie batch instead?" Naraku challenged her, lifting his cup to his lips and pausing for her answer.

"Mama didn't raise no bitch," she said quickly. She tilted her head back and Naraku decided to indulge her competitive nature, but after the first drink, he could tell she really wasn't, "no bitch." Her gulps were steady and large and after draining her mug, she slammed it down on the table. Jade shook her head while sticking her tongue out of her mouth, complaining about the bitterness.

"You drink like a fish." Naraku pointed out after finishing his cup.

"I'm just happy that I'm faster at something than you are."

"You're faster at having worthless talents."

"You mad."

"Oh yes." he replied sarcastically.

"Alright, well, the taste woke me up at least." Jade sighed, grabbing her backpack. "Thanks for the tea. I'll be back in an hour."

"Have fun being terrible at drawing." Naraku said back as she darted out the door. Again, her hand and middle finger flew back in and then out before the door closed. As much as he wanted to, Naraku couldn't bring himself to smile at that gesture.

Glass clinked together as Naraku gathered used beakers and utensils to wash. He covered the drain in the left sink and filled it with hot, soapy water to let the glassware soak. Despite having a five hour nap earlier that morning, Naraku's body still ached and felt like it weighed a ton. The lab door opened while he was rubbing his eyes to help keep them stimulated. He could already tell from the silence that it was Sesshomaru.

"Good morning, friend." Naraku called out, blinking his eyes to remove the blurriness from his vision.

"You look tired, but alive. I suggest you keep it that way by staying silent." Sesshomaru responded, his tone bored and uninterested.

"Can you at least sound like you want to hurt me?" Naraku asked while flashing him a grin.

"Pest." Sesshomaru grumbled, opening a drawer and pulling out a box of slides and a box of slide covers. Naraku slowly walked towards him with his arms crossed.

"You might want to keep your slides locked up somewhere safe."

"You know how the game goes; if you touch something of mine, I will ruin something of yours. You might want to place your extraction samples somewhere safe. It would be a shame for three hard-working days to go to waste." Sesshomaru warned, turning to Naraku and crossing his arms.

"You know how my game goes; if you ruin something of mine, no one will ever find you." Naraku stated seriously, but then he smirked wickedly. "But, that will give me a chance to console your mother one last time."

Sesshomaru hesitated, but Naraku could tell by the look in his golden eyes that his decision was made; murder him! The white-haired man's right fist sliced through the air swiftly. Naraku ducked, but the fist caught him on the side of the head instead of his face. He stumbled to the side, but kept his footing. Naraku swung his fist in return. Sesshomaru had already bent over, grabbing Naraku by the waist and lifting him off the floor.

 _'He's going to throw me into our samples!'_ Naraku realized with horror.

"I don't think so!" Naraku spat, tipping himself forward and shifting Sesshomaru's balance. Naraku hit the floor first, but he managed to grab Sesshomaru's shoulder and bring him down with him. Both men rolled away from one another. Sesshomaru recovered to his feet first; Naraku was already exhausted and was down on one knee. Sesshomaru raised his left hand and gripped one of the bars of the mobile shelves holding Naraku's samples.

"Think really hard about what you're going to do," Naraku panted, remaining on his left knee, but he shifted his body up, ready to launch himself forward. "I hold back during our fights because they amuse me. If you shake even one of those bottles, I will strangle you."

"Oh, now you're serious?" Sesshomaru asked skeptically.

"Prove your doubts. Try me."

"Come at me then," Sesshomaru flicked the cap of a single bottle, but barely had time to react to Naraku's agile lunge towards him. Naraku grabbed Sesshomaru's wrist and shoved him backwards into the wall. Sesshomaru smirked. "Wrong move!" He jabbed Naraku in the ribs before tackling him, both men collapsing into the two mobile shelves.

Red. A fuzzy mixture of red, black, and white was all Naraku could see. Had the fumes from the ruined extractions splashed into his eyes? If so, it didn't explain the high-pitched ringing in his ears. But, a louder, muffled voice proved to him that he hadn't gone deaf.

"Stop! Stop!" Bruce's voice echoed. Naraku blinked and saw his hands around Sesshomaru's throat.

"When did," Naraku released his grip and Sesshomaru coughed as the air filled his lungs.

"I am so fucking," Bruce paused, looking around at all the spilled bottles. He gasped deeply and loudly, his expression shifting from anger to disbelief. "Oh my, oh no, nononono! This was Jade's first - I can't even speak right now!"

"Get off me!" Sesshomaru snarled, shoving Naraku from his body.

"Oh my God, oh my God," Bruce's panicked voice echoed throughout the lab. "Shit! Shit!"

"..." Naraku could only stare at the floor. The thousand bottles were scattered everywhere. Some had remained closed, but most had broken open, spilling out their contents. That was because some of the samples were still reacting, so they left the caps slightly unscrewed to allow the fumes to escape peacefully instead of risking the bottles exploding from the pressure.

 _'How could I let this happen?'_ Naraku slowly wiped the dribble of blood from his lip with his thumb and then stared at it. Three days worth of work; gone. The blood droplet crept down his thumb, curving towards his palm.

"I have had it with you two! Had it! I'm done! I'm taking this to the head of the department and we're going to figure out what to do with both of you!" Bruce stormed to the closet, pulling out a mop and bucket and shoving it towards both men. "Start cleaning! Save the bottles that haven't spilled!"

Naraku cleaned himself up first, as did Sesshomaru, and then they both grabbed gloves and started stalking around the room, searching for any intact bottles. He and Sesshomaru capped and tossed the unlucky ones into a blue plastic tub. They also dropped various towels on the floor to soak up the horrendous-smelling liquids.

"Did Jade help you with these?" Sesshomaru asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes." Naraku answered.

"We shouldn't let her see this." Sesshomaru said, dipping the mop into the bucket of water.

"Heh, this is your doing, so you can handle it." Naraku responded, finding another plastic tub to toss the soiled towels into. "You also ruined the slides she made."

"Had I known,"

"You're lucky. She's rather forgiving." Naraku told him. Sesshomaru looked back at him, searching for any sign of deceit, but Naraku meant it.

"So I've heard."

Bruce walked in several minutes later, closing the door behind him. He was still shaking his head, his eyes wide with disbelief. The two Master's students were now drying the floor quietly. The professor watched them for a moment and wondered why this had to happen, especially to Jade. Anything she had a hand in, Naraku and Sesshomaru would destroy it.

"If you two would act more like this instead of like two hormonal gorillas fighting over a female, things would be so much easier. Not just for me, but for both of you." Bruce said.

"He provoked me." Sesshomaru bit.

"I don't care if he fucked your grandmother's corpse while waving at you with her arm! Act like an adult! Act like a man of science, discipline, and respect! If you know him so well, you should be familiar with his tactics." Bruce lectured angrily, his New Zealand accent becoming heavier the angrier he became. "Naraku, don't even get me fucking started on you. I swear. I'll set you on fire with my frustration alone."

"What will we do about Jade?" Sesshomaru interjected. The fear returned to Bruce's eyes.

"I don't know. I don't know if we should tell her or if we should send her home to rest first. I'm tempted to just throw all of my money and funding at her and hope that she doesn't take legal action against us for mental, emotional, and physical distress."

"She won't." Naraku said. "We should tell her immediately. She's going to find out no matter what."

"Well, she's not doing this again. I forbid it." Bruce declared, pointing at the remaining bottles on the table.

"We still have an entire month to,"

"I forbid it, Naraku!" the professor snapped, stamping his foot on the floor. The three men fell silent, none of them making eye contact. They all heard it; the ruckus of chairs scooting across floors as classroom doors opened up and down the hallway. Classes were done. Jade was on her way. Bruce started fidgeting where he stood, still moaning, "Oh my God," through his hands and staring at the clock on the back wall. Sesshomaru let out a loud, slow exhale with his eyes fixated on his watch. Naraku sat on the couch and tapped a beat on the cushion with a single finger; one second, one tap.

"Goddamn, she's going to be pissed," Bruce breathed, tears forming in his eyes. Naraku was actually taken aback. He had never seen Bruce cry. Was he honestly that worried? About Jade? She was going to be very angry, yes, but Jade didn't dwell on things.

 _'This will blow over. It will blow over like a hurricane, but it will blow over.'_ Naraku continued tapping his finger.

The door clicked and Bruce inhaled sharply, turning around immediately. Jade shuffled through the door and for the first time, Naraku felt a piercing pain in his heart. She looked absolutely miserable. Her hand was pressed to her stomach and her shoulders heaved with every breath she took. She even looked ghostly pale despite the olive tone her skin naturally held.

 _'I've made a mistake.'_ he realized.

"I don't feel good, guys. I think I'm just going to go ahead and...what?" Jade's voice was shaky, but now she was frowning, her eyes shifting from Sesshomaru, to Bruce, and then over to Naraku, who wasn't sure what his expression was, but it must have set an alarm off in her head, because she started shaking her head slowly, murmuring, "No."

"Jade, I want you to go home, okay? Go home and rest and don't worry about coming to class tomorrow, alright? Just stay home today and tomorrow. Naraku has nothing for you to do, right?" Bruce's soft, apologetic voice turned sharp and bitter when addressing Naraku, who couldn't stop staring at Jade. She was staring back at him, her trembling lips pressed together.

"Right." Naraku finally said.

"You didn't," she muttered. "Where are they? Where are the bottles?"

"Jade, please go home. You don't need to worry about this." Bruce pressed on, but Jade walked past him, spotting the few surviving bottles on the table. She turned and saw the blue tub containing the bottles that didn't make it. Slowly and shakily, her mouth opened as she placed her hands on her head, burrowing her fingers into her messy brown hair.

"Jade," Naraku said as he stood up. "This isn't your mess. Go home."

"They will be redone, you can count on that. Right, boys? You will both redo them." Bruce ordered sternly. He glanced back at Jade, whose eyes were closed as she stood still; her face frozen in a silent, terrible scream. Once the tears started streaming down her face and her teeth slowly gnashed together, her entire body began to tremble.

"If I could take it back, I would. My intentions were not aimed at you." Sesshomaru said as he approached the trembling Jade. She slowly bent down, a loud sob escaping her mouth...then the hyperventilating and crying began and all three men looked at one another with wide eyes, hoping one of the others knew what to do or say.

"Jade, do you need us to get you something? Someone?" Bruce asked softly, carefully pulling his phone from his pocket.

"What? Do you have a psychologist on speed dial?" Naraku shot at him skeptically. "Let her work it out on her own." It made him unbearably uncomfortable to see her like this. When the trembling in his hands began, he pocketed them.

"If it hadn't been for you being a dick, this wouldn't have happened!" Bruce snapped back heatedly.

"Sesshomaru threw the first punch." Naraku argued.

"Well then, I must have given you brain damage, because you seem to have forgotten why I did in the first place." Sesshomaru stepped towards Naraku threateningly, but Bruce stepped back between them and held his hands outward.

"What is wrong with you two?" Bruce hissed, looking from one man to the other.

"Sesshomaru should own up. His actions led to this. He's always the first to get physical." Naraku said with a grin. Sesshomaru stared back at him sternly, his golden eyes searing into Naraku's eyes.

"Fine. Jade," Sesshomaru turned to her and within a split second, he felt his soul try to rip itself free from his body before he even fully comprehended what he saw. It took a second longer for his mind to register what he was staring at. Jade was standing now, facing him, glaring at him, but that wasn't what disturbed him; it was the dark red blood dripping from her nose and mouth. Her entire body heaved with each forceful, angered breath she took, causing droplets of blood to spatter onto the floor in front of her. Sesshomaru took a step back immediately. His instincts were screaming at him to flee!

"Jaaaaade," Bruce's voice was a slow, pleading whimper. Naraku's body had seized up; every muscle tensed and clenched. He couldn't move them if he wanted to and he wanted to very badly.

 _'I don't think she can hear you.'_ Naraku wanted to say, but his throat refused to obey. Jade opened her mouth to let out the loudest, most animalistic scream he had ever heard in his life. Time seemed to slow down as she charged at Sesshomaru, spearing him to the floor. The force of the hit slid them back towards the closet door.

"MY SAMPLES!" Jade roared, her fist striking Sesshomaru's left cheek. He was too stunned to defend himself. "MY SLIDES! MY FACE!" She struck him twice more before his brain rebooted and he gained the sense to stop her. Sesshomaru reached up to grab her, but she was able to knock his arms aside and dig her hands into the collar of his shirt, her lips pulled back in a blood-stained snarl. She lifted his shoulders and neck up. "MINE!" She slammed him into the concrete floor. She did it again, again, and again screaming, "Mine," viciously each time.

"Oh my fucking God! What is happening?" Bruce shrieked as he tore at his hair, unable to accept what was unfolding before him. Naraku finally peeled his feet from the floor and sprinted towards her. Before Jade could turn on him, he wrapped his arms under hers and then clasped his hands behind her neck, dragging her off Sesshomaru, who was breathing raggedly, his eyes wide with terror and disorientation. Naraku grunted as Jade kicked, pulling and swinging her body at different angles. She began sobbing, almost as if she was terrified, but then her cries morphed into savage wails, almost roaring! It sent chills through Naraku's body, starting at his hands and feet and swelling to his spine. He wanted nothing more than to teleport to the opposite side of the planet and away from her.

"Jade!" Naraku shouted, realizing that her thrashing was only getting wilder and stronger! He was barely able to keep her restrained, let alone still!

 _'How is she so strong?'_ Naraku's mind was in a frenzy. Was this all her stress erupting at once? Was this the blood solution he dropped into her drink? Was this real? The more she jerked and pulled herself, the higher the numbness crawled in his arms and legs. With one last yell, Jade pulled free and Naraku fell backwards from his own force. She followed up by swinging around and stomping him in the chest until he was flat on the floor. Then, Jade spun around and slammed her hands under the main table and flipped it onto its side, sending all the papers, writing utensils, and remaining extraction bottles flying through the air and crashing to the floor. Bruce had gasped and jumped back until he slammed his back into the board. Jade was now glaring at him! She leapt forward, knocking aside the boxes that had been stored under the table.

"I don't think so!" Sesshomaru barked, grabbing one of her legs and pulling her to the floor with him. He grabbed her other leg and jerked her back towards him before slamming his body down on her back, pinning her down. Sesshomaru wrapped his right arm around her neck, holding it in place with his left arm. With a single deep inhale, he flexed as hard as he could while clamping his arm around her neck. Her screams now turned into gasps, her nails digging into his arm desperately.

"Don't hurt her!" Bruce shouted worriedly.

"Are you serious?" Sesshomaru barked back at him. He grunted with frustration when he realized her writhing hadn't weakened or slowed down at all. She should have been losing consciousness by now!

"Hold her!" Naraku ordered, recovering from his encounter and leaping over them. He slid to the fume hood, ripped open the door to the bottom and knocked over several brown bottles until he found the one labeled, "Chloroform."

"Naraku, hurry up!" Bruce urged, watching in terror as Jade began steadily pushing herself and Sesshomaru up with her arms. She shifted their bodies just enough to pull her leg under herself.

"How is...she still...conscious?" Sesshomaru growled through gritted teeth, putting all of his strength into his grip on her neck. He attempted to weigh her back down with the force of his body, but she didn't budge. Jade swung her arm twice and caught him in the ribs with her elbow, causing him to loosen his hold just enough for her to pull free and nearly run on all fours to the lab door.

"NOOOOO!" Bruce wailed, his voice cracking as he ran towards her in hopes of stalling her for even a second, but she ripped the door open anyway, breaking the top hinge.

"You are useless!" Naraku spat, pocketing the rag and leaping over Sesshomaru, the boxes, and the flipped table in one bound. He picked up speed once he reached the long stretch of hallway, ignoring the people who gathered to check out the commotion. He kept his focus on Jade, watching as she slid into her turn at the end of the hallway and took off like she had sprinted professionally all her life. Naraku reached the turn and slid into it like she had, preventing himself from slamming into the wall due to his momentum. He heard the door to the stairway slam and he frowned. Why was she going up?

Naraku's hair whipped and bounced behind him as he skipped several steps at a time. He bounded up the steps after her, hearing the squeaks and slaps of her shoes along with her frantic crying. A man yelped with shock, screaming after Jade to watch out. Naraku soon saw the man; gray hair and stern lines carved into his face.

"No! No! What is going on?" the man shouted, throwing himself in front of Naraku.

"Shut up!" Naraku hollered as grabbed the man by the neck and belt, lifting him as he jogged up to the next landing. He shoved him into the wall and burst through the door that led to the roof.

"Jade," Naraku called out, spotting her standing on the edge of the building. She held a large, gray cement block in her hands and was panting. Before Naraku could say anything else, she tossed the block off the side. The crunch of metal, the cracking of glass, and a very familiar car alarm echoed loudly. The alarm was distorted, almost as if the car was crying about the damage.

 _'My car,'_ he realized, closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, Jade was holding her head with both hands, hyperventilating again and whimpering loudly. He took the opportunity, running as hard as he possibly could. Jade saw him and shook her head vehemently.

"Jade! Stop!" Naraku shouted.

"No!" she yelled, pleaded, stepping back to the edge, but Naraku dove forward and snatched her left wrist. She toppled over with him to the ground. He felt a pop and Jade returned to screaming and thrashing, but it was much weaker compared to her strength in the lab moments earlier. Naraku flipped over and pushed her back down using her dislocated shoulder as a painful leverage. He saw her try to turn, to escape, but she shook her head again, repeating, "No," over and over.

 _'Is she telling me, "No," or herself?'_ he wondered, yanking the prepped rag from his pocket. Pinning her arms down with his knees and sitting on her chest, Naraku gripped her nose and mouth powerfully with the rag.

"You will breathe eventually," Naraku told her. Jade held her breath firmly, trying to sit up, to move her body enough to shift him from her body, but Naraku didn't budge. When her face started to turn blue, Naraku dug his free fist into her dislocated shoulder, applying more and more pressure until she finally gasped for air and relief. Soon, her thrashes turned to twitches, and her entire body fell limp.

"What...the hell?" he murmured when he noticed her eyes were still open. Her breathing was ragged and uneven, and her body twitched in a strange, pulsating rhythm. The roof door swung open, Bruce running through and shouting Naraku's name.

"Is she finally down? I called an ambulance!" Bruce panted as he jogged towards them.

"I knocked her out, but," Naraku trailed off as he moved from her body, allowing Bruce to assess the situation himself. Naraku pulled his phone out, noticing a new crack at the top right corner. He activated the flashlight and leaned over her face. He held her eyelid open, shinning the light into it, but her pupil did not react. The same for her other eye. Her eyelids did try to close on their own when he held them, which was very unusual for an unconscious person.

"Is she,"

"She's unconscious, but her body is still awake." Naraku explained. Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder.

"Naraku, what the hell just happened?" Bruce demanded. "What am I...what happened? Is she on drugs? Did you drug her?"

"No!" Naraku spat.

 _'But you did.'_ his voice echoed back in his head.

"Then what happened to her? That was not Jade!" Bruce hollered, turning around to hide his tears of frustration. Both men tensed up when they heard Jade choking. Naraku quickly turned her onto her side, watching the red liquid pour from her mouth as she coughed. But still, her eyes remained open and listless.

"Why didn't Sesshomaru's hold work on her? She should have passed out! He had her locked, but she didn't let up at all!"

"I think...she was already unconscious at that point,"

"If she was unconscious, she would be," Bruce cut off and pointed at Jade in her current state.

"Not necessarily. There are different levels of consciousness. It's similar to being blackout drunk. You don't remember, but you walked and talked."

"Jade isn't drunk!"

"She doesn't have to be. She was exhausted and upset enough for her to mentally check out." Naraku finally stood up when he heard the emergency vehicles pulling up. Bruce ran to the edge and called down to them.

 _'But she was too strong; too out of control. Was this really my doing?'_ he wondered.

More gurgling noises came from Jade's mouth and with one, powerful cough, her body expelled more blood - and a small, dark purple mass. Naraku gasped and used the rag in his hand to grab the small crystal. He slipped it into his pocket as he rose back to his feet, stepping away as the paramedics surrounded the unconscious Jade. They asked for her name; Bruce gave it. They asked for her age; Bruce gave it. They asked what happened; Bruce's mouth opened, but nothing came out. His head shook, so did his hands, but no sounds came out. The first two paramedics called for the gurney while the others went to check on Sesshomaru.

"Jade," one paramedic, a man around Naraku's age, called. "Can you hear me? Blink if you can." He repeated the question and request another time, but looked at his partner and shook his head. "She isn't responding."

"No shit? I've never," the older man turned and spotted Naraku. "What happened?"

"She," Naraku paused, seemingly hitting the same wall Bruce had. "She was out of control."

"Alright. We're taking her. Does she have relatives?"

"I don't know. She has roommates. They might know."

"Contact them immediately." the older paramedic ordered, pointing at Naraku and Bruce. Once they placed her on the gurney, Bruce and Naraku followed them down. The paramedics detoured to the elevator, but Naraku and Bruce remained on the stairwell.

"Do you know her roommates?" Bruce asked quickly.

"I know one, but I don't have her contact information and she isn't my biggest fan,"

"Imagine that." Bruce growled sarcastically. He stopped at the bottom of stairs, tuning to Naraku angrily. "Go home. You're not allowed back in my lab until this is sorted out with Eric. Now I have to go explain this mess to everyone and my gut is screaming at me that you had something to do with this."

"Prove it." Naraku said back calmly. Bruce pointed at him.

"I have Jade's address and emergency contact information, so I'll handle that part, too. Go home. Sesshomaru is to do the same. Neither of you are to step foot in my lab." Bruce marched away quickly. Naraku snorted with annoyance. Then, he remembered his car. Jade had ruined it during her fit of rage.

"Damn." Naraku whispered. But, he couldn't bring himself to be too upset about it. He walked outside and examined the damage to his car. The windshield had shattered and the hood was deeply dented in. He doubted it could be repaired, especially since a portion of the hood split from the force, indicating the possibility of internal damage. The one time he parked in the forbidden parking lot while classes were in session, this happened.

 _'The crystal she spat out,'_ he remembered, pulling the bloodied rag from his pocket. It looked identical to the crystals from the blood solution before they dissolved. _'I am even more confused.'_

 **000000**

Cold. Everything was cold. Everything was black. Jade could hear water dripping. Slow, steady, one drip at a time; it was almost ominous, as if telling her, "I'm here. I'm watching you." Jade wondered why she thought that. It was just water. Everything else was quiet. But still, she dared not open her eyes. Her arms wrapped around her legs, pulling them tighter to her chest. The less space she occupied, the better. _Drip._ Nothing had indicated that. _Drip._ It just felt better that way. _Drip._ Now her teeth were gnashing together. _Drip._ Where was it? _Drip._ It was irritating. _Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._

"Stooooooooooop!" Jade hollered, balling her hands into fists so tight, her nails cut into her palms. Now her breathing was labored, her heart rate was elevated, and her heart felt like it was going to burst through her chest; but it was quiet now. The water heard her. It feared her.

"No. No. I'm not scary. It was annoying me." Now the beating of her heart and blood rushing through her veins replaced the dripping sounds. She covered her ears. It didn't help. _B-bmp. B-bmp. B-bmp. B-bmp._ She fell on her side. _B-bmp. B-bmp. B-bmp. B-bmp._ The pain in her chest and the fear of her situation gripped around her neck and held tightly. _B-bmp! B-bmp! B-bmp! B-bmp!_ Anything else! Anything but this sound! It was suffocating her!

"MY SAMPLES!" a familiar voice screamed in the distance. Jade shook her head, unable to inhale or exhale. "MY SLIDES! MY FACE!" She opened her eyes, but it was still dark; blacker than black.

 _'Whose voice is that?'_

"MINE!" it echoed.

 _'No,'_ Jade wanted to scream back, but she couldn't breathe. Yet, she wouldn't pass out either.

"MINE!"

 _'No!'_ The warm tears trailed down her chilled face.

"MINE!"

 _'That isn't me! That isn't my voice!'_

"MIIIIIIIIINE!"

 _'Someone stop this! I need help! I need help! Just let me die already!'_

"Jade! Stop!" another, deeper voice called out. The pressure around her neck disappeared and she inhaled deeply and desperately. She rolled onto her stomach, her breaths coming in short bursts. But, she held them deep in her chest in when she heard it again…

 _Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip._


	16. Treading the Abyss

**Treading the Abyss**

 ** _'The more I discover, the more lost I become,'_** Naraku wrote down in his notebook. He decided he was going to take extensive notes and entries about everything he did with his research and he was mildly kicking himself in the ass for not starting earlier.

 ** _'Test Subject 1 had a severe adverse reaction to about a tenth milliliter of the original purple solution. TS1's symptoms began with fatigue, possibly an upset stomach, and upon being triggered by a stressful situation, gained a burst of energy, increased strength, and a sense of unforgiving, animalistic rage. This was short-lived; 10-15 minutes. I assume a greater amount would result in a longer duration of these symptoms. However, while losing the effect, TS1 began to possibly hallucinate and attempted to leap off the roof of a three-story building. TS1 required chloroform to be subdued. Additionally, TS1's body remained active despite being unconscious. Pupils did not dilate with light, but the eyelids tried to close. Yet, the eyes remained open when left alone. TS1's body began to tremor and twitch in a slow manner and spit up blood twice. Upon the second time, a crystallized material spilled out.'_** Naraku stopped to flex his hand. He was writing fast and hard and his hand didn't appreciate it. His eyes were drawn to the second glass tube where the crystal Jade spat up resided. The small amount of blood that accompanied it was sizzling on its surface. That didn't concern him as much as the color, though. Naraku looked back at his notebook.

 ** _'At first, the crystal held a dark purple color, just like the original solution, but after nearly eight hours, it has lightened to a pink color. There isn't enough blood for it to dissolve, so it remains solid.'_** He placed his pencil down and rubbed his face with both hands. His ears still rang with the sounds of her screams and cries.

"No." he said, standing from his chair and taking his shirt off. He felt disgusting. Nothing about the day turned out as he planned. He was exhausted, injured…

 _'Jade,'_ Naraku closed his eyes. Her plain brown hair, her plain face, her striking green eyes, her bloodied mouth, her bloodied nose, her enraged shrieking, her silence and thousand-yard stare...

"No." he repeated, striding into his bathroom. He turned the knobs to blast the water and finished undressing before stepping into the shower. Naraku scrubbed his body, feeling the physical grime of sweat and spilled chemicals being washed from his body, but the churning feeling in his stomach, the tingling sensation in his skin, and his elevated heart rate still made him feel unclean.

"I'm tired,"

 _'She's dying.'_

"I'm tired,"

 _'I killed her.'_

"I am...tired."

After drying his hair, Naraku crawled into his bed. It didn't take long for him to drift into a deep sleep. The next thing he knew, he was waking up to his phone buzzing loudly on his nightstand. His hand groped the surface until he felt the slick screen of his phone, sliding it towards himself on his mattress.

 _ **'We are meeting with Eric today at 1pm. We have no choice in the matter. Either you come or you're expelled.'**_ Bruce's message read. Naraku planted his face into his pillow, exhaling a single curse. When he felt the burning sensation of the rage pass, he glanced back at his phone for the time. It was nine in the morning. He slept for twelve hours?

"I'm still tired."

 **000000**

After closing his office door and walking around his desk to sit back down, Eric cleared his throat and clasped his hands together on his desk. The Head of the Chemistry Department was a man in his forties. He was tall, slender, with short, buzzed brown hair and was either silent or speaking softly. However, he didn't need to speak much because his intense hazel eyes spoke for him.

"Bruce, none of this looks good. At all." Eric said softly, glancing down at the three separate papers in front of him.

"I know." Bruce answered, staring down at his lap. On his left sat Sesshomaru, who was looking worse for the wear with a heavily bruised face and a scabbed-over cut on his lip. On Bruce's right sat Naraku, who was wearing the healing cut on his forehead and an unseen bruise on his chest.

"You have to have known about these two and their," Eric trailed off, trying to find the proper words as he pointed at both students.

"Angry gorilla fights? I knew of some things; I didn't know how bad and how often."

"Now you know." Eric cleared his throat again, picking up the far left paper on his desk. "I have offers for you two, and the girl when she returns,"

"Wait," Bruce interrupted, leaning forward. "Jade isn't...what happened wasn't her fault."

"She attacked all three of you and threw cement blocks off the roof of the building."

"She threw one." Naraku corrected, now crossing his arms. Eric's stern gaze darted towards him.

"My point still stands. As far as I'm concerned, she's the most dangerous of the three. When will she be back?"

"She's in a coma, Eric. Something was not right with her medically." Bruce explained, the strain in his voice indicating his desperate position.

"She hasn't woken up?" Naraku asked. Bruce, Sesshomaru, and Eric all stared back at him, all wearing the same expression; confusion.

"No, and her aunt is planning on suing us. She's claiming we attacked Jade and to be honest, Jade has the injuries to prove it despite it being false."

"Injuries? I was under the impression that none of you struck her." Eric's voice had gained a hardness to it now.

"We didn't. I put her in a choke hold after she attacked me." Sesshomaru insisted, glancing over at Naraku. Their eyes met and Naraku could tell that for once, Sesshomaru wasn't trying to throw him under.

"I dislocated her shoulder when I was trying to prevent her from jumping off the roof. I used chloroform to knock her out." Naraku added. Eric looked at both of them and back at Bruce, who was sitting with his eyes closed and he looked to be in severe pain.

"She has coughed up blood and has a torn pectoral muscle. She has several minor tears in her muscles along her arms, actually. Her blood pressure is lower than it was, but still high. She is also sporting a horrendous bruise around her neck. That is all reported from this morning." Bruce finally stated after taking a moment to breathe.

"Naraku, are you sure that's all you did to her on the roof?" Eric asked, the suspicion in his tone heavy.

"Yes." Naraku answered sharply.

"She did damage your car. If you got angry with her,"

"You think I did all of that to her?" Naraku asked back with annoyance, but that stinging pain in his chest appeared again.

"You have a history of harming other students."

"Harming and tormenting them, but I have never beaten one to near death. I've never even slapped one, not counting him." Naraku argued icily as he pointed at Sesshomaru.

"To be fair, the torn pectoral muscle was probably from the dislocated shoulder incident." Bruce interjected.

"Yes, that I caused because she was trying to jump off! Should I have just let her do it?" Naraku couldn't control his temper any longer.

"Calm down. No, it's good that you saved her and, to be honest, I'm surprised," Eric replied, holding his hand up to signal Naraku to calm down. But he didn't. He couldn't. He stood up swiftly, his hands balled into tight fists.

"I have teased her, I have made her miserable, I have made her uncomfortable, and I have made her cry," Naraku listed off, walking towards the office door and ripping it open. "But I would never beat her. What good is she to me dead?" He marched out and slammed the door behind him. He was gritting his teeth so hard that his jaw began to burn from the tension.

"Naraku! Wait!" Bruce shouted, running alongside him. "Stop, stop,"

"What does he want from me? I noticed he had three papers, each with our names on them, and a line to sign our names. What does he want?" Naraku questioned bitterly. Bruce held up both hands submissively.

"The university has a second-chance policy. It doesn't immediately expel unless you have committed a serious crime, and you haven't been charged."

"Yet."

"Listen to me!" Bruce hissed. "It's three of us against Jade's recollection, if she even remembers, and if she even wakes up,"

"I don't want to hear it."

"What is with you? You were completely calm until Jade was brought up. I still have a feeling you did something to her. Otherwise, why are you so defensive?"

"I'm not defensive; I refuse to be the fall-guy for something we all participated in."

"That's still being defensive, Naraku. What's bothering you?"

"Drop it. Quit bringing up Jade. What does Eric want me to do?"

"You have to see a psychologist for six weeks," Bruce said, holding up a finger.

"I'll be taking my thesis and lab funding elsewhere. I'm not doing that."

"Swallow your damn pride and just go. You also have to participate in volunteer work for the university." Bruce held up a second finger.

"Mandatory volunteer work; how quaint." Naraku grumbled sarcastically, now staring at the wall.

"You and Sesshomaru are to have no contact on campus grounds or during events where you represent the university for six weeks. And then you have to write an essay to the university apologizing for your actions." Bruce pressed on, holding up two more fingers. "Write it sarcastically if you have to."

"I'll think about it." Naraku turned back towards the doors.

"Well, think hard, because Eric is recanting the offer by the end of the week. If that happens, then the university will expel you for your actions and your refusal to comply."

"Hmph."

"If it makes you feel any better, Sesshomaru has to do the same things, except he has to go to anger management. He will agree to it." Bruce added quickly. "And Jade, if she comes back, has far more punishments to agree to than both of you. No other university will touch you with all of this baggage hanging on you. So, take a day to calm down and sign the agreement."

"Eric should reconsider Jade's punishment."

"I'll talk to him about it. He might want to ask you questions seeing as you two spent the weekend together in the lab."

"Hm."

Naraku walked out without saying another word. He sat in his rental car; a dark blue Grand Prix. He almost paid extra for a different car because Jade drove a dark green Grand Prix, but he bit the bullet since his insurance was only going to provide a certain price range.

The next six hours were sacrificed to the restricted notes sent by his sample providers. The notes were extensive and there were four different people's notes and they all usually came to different conclusions about different oddities found. Most of the notes he read were mundane, so Naraku finally cracked open the notes of the fourth scientist; the geologist named, "Sessue Asano." The first two days were general rock and outcrop findings, discussions of the lake's mild salt level, surrounding sediment and soil details, the nearby lagoon, and a couple of mentions of the small island in the middle of the lake.

 _ **'Sessue Asano - Day 3 - Northeast Quadrant**_

 _ **The weather is overcast; 16͒ C**_

 _ **My partner is Kiyomi Matsuda'**_

"Why aren't her notes here? Geologists usually work in pairs." Naraku murmured. Rarely did a scientist of any study investigate and explore an area without a partner in case of injuries and it was unheard of to have only one set of notes for a pair of scientists.

 ** _'8:00AM - As expected, the NE Quad of the lake is more brackish than the NW. This is most likely due to being nearly connected to a lagoon. The soil and sediment are the same, except grain size is a magnitude bigger (See Page 40 and on for all measurements and descriptions).'_**

 ** _'9:13AM - Found an interesting outcrop. About 700m thick. Many horizontal layers of sediment ranging from sand to silt, and various fossils found within (Measurements and detailed descriptions on Page 40). Also found a layer of tuff about 500m up. The multiple layers and deposits seem to indicate this area was once underwater as a shallow, mid-to high marine environment. A volcanic eruption occurred much later, possibly after sea level regressed. Would also explain the brackish nature of the lake and the existence of the lagoon.'_**

"Leave it to the geologist to bore me." Naraku sighed heavily. He took a drink of water and decided to press on. He had nothing else to do until he decided what to do about Eric's offer.

 ** _'10:47AM - Kiyomi lost water cannister somewhere, but had a filter bottle. We decided to take a food break near a stream (area marked as 33 on map). Nothing more. Just casual conversation.'_**

"I want to skin myself."

 ** _'12:04PM - Had to end journey here (marked as 34 on map). Kiyomi became violently ill. Called for help.'_**

"Hm." Naraku turned to the next page. It was the following day. Though, the biologist was the geologist's new partner this day. He continued reading, but something was off. Naraku turned back to the previous page, reading the Day 3 passages again. He also noticed a few spots of dirt and a smear at the bottom of the page; not unusual, especially from a geologist. Naraku flipped to Day 4.

 _'Why did he change his narration style? Before his sentences were incomplete or brief with detailed descriptions on a different page. But on the next page he has long, fully detailed sentences, descriptions, and exact measurements. Even his handwriting is different.'_ Naraku looked up and stared straight ahead when it hit him; it was a different geologist on Day 4. Something happened to Sessue on Day 3 and it wasn't just a sick partner. Naraku looked at Day 3 and closely studied the handwriting to be absolutely certain.

"It looks like something was erased," Naraku whispered, grabbing his magnifying glass to better observe the area around the phrase, "violently ill." There was definitely a smudge, but without the original copy, he couldn't make out what had been there previously. There was a second, longer smudge after the comment about calling for help, but again, he couldn't clearly make out any kanji.

 _'Violently ill, called for help,'_ Naraku repeated in his head, carefully running his thumb back and forth across his bottom lip. His eyes rested on his purple solution and the pink crystal Jade had spit up. _'Violently ill.'_ He pushed through reading about Day 4; another mundane day of usual geological findings. Day 5; more of the same. Day 6 was normal until the very end. The second geologist drank some of the water himself after slipping into the lake unexpectedly and accidentally inhaling out of shock. As Naraku expected, the Day 7 entry handwriting was slightly different, as if the author tried to imitate the handwriting of the previous author. This handwriting was also darker, meaning they were probably writing slower, which was an indication of trying to change their handwriting.

"So, they are actively covering something up; something in the water," Naraku turned the pages back to Sessue's entries. Naraku thought since he was the original author, he was less likely to cover anything up as opposed to the two geologists who posed as him. He still found nothing more from Sessue's entries.

 _'I have a single sediment core of this lake. The diatoms' cell walls are purple, the other algae had a purple color; almost every microbe had purple somewhere in or on their bodies.'_ Naraku reminded himself. _'If that purple color is an indication of the same type of substance as my solution, then ingesting the water, along with all of those contaminated lifeforms, might give someone the same symptoms Jade showed.'_ Naraku smirked.

"Violently ill or just violent?" he asked quietly. He looked back at the entry, but his eyes were drawn to the dark marks of dirt. He noticed they had tails. They were almost like tiny black comets raining down the page. The tails pointed to the top of the page, indicating that the dirt was brushed towards the bottom of the book.

"Why brush the dirt or mud towards yourself? Most would brush it away, meaning the tails would aim down." Naraku hated that all the notes were photocopied. Everything was black and white, but, he already had his guess; the spots were blood. If Kiyomi had ingested something similar to what Jade ingested, her symptoms could have been very similar. If she became violent, Sessue was the only person near her that she could attack.

"She came at him towards his front, probably bleeding from the nose and mouth, which explains why the spatter tails are aimed up instead of down." Naraku recited to himself as he pointed at his chest. He leaned back in his chair, massaging his temples softly. He didn't have hard evidence, but it was plausible and that was all he needed.

 _'That still doesn't explain why the crystal Jade spit up is pink.'_ Naraku let out an audible groan. He needed to take a break, so he left his office and grabbed some sliced oranges from his fridge. But, he was still racking his brain. Was the color due to contact with stomach acid? Was it because he mixed it with tea? Could it have been her blood? It was purple when she spit it out; it turned pink as the tiny amount of her blood sizzled on the surface. That had to be it.

 **000000**

It was midnight. The watch on Naraku's left wrist had beeped to let him know, but he was more concerned with the other beeping noise in the room; Jade's heart monitor. He took a moment to write down her vitals and took a picture of the chart on the end of her bed with additional information about her condition and at what time each check up occurred. From a moment's glance, everything Bruce said the previous day was accurate, but Naraku needed details. He needed her heart rate from when the paramedics took her and all the fluctuations in between. Naraku's eyes were drawn to an area on her chart highlighted in yellow.

 ** _'Nurse: Joice_**

 ** _Time: 10:04am_**

 ** _Date: 9/18/16_**

 ** _Patient: Jade Morilo_**

 ** _Age: 21_**

 ** _Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic/Latina_**

 ** _Jade opened her eyes, but she did not respond to any questions and did not recognize her aunt, her close friends or her professor/academic adviser. We checked vitals and brain activity; she is still comatose. She looked around carefully and she ate a cup of applesauce. She did talk. She chanted, "Drip," over and over starting at 10:19am until she closed her eyes again at 10:20am.'_**

"Hm, I suspected she wasn't caucasian." Naraku said quietly, glancing back at her face. "I suppose her surname was a clue." He hooked the chart back on the rail and walked over to her right side.

 _'I need to do this quickly and leave.'_ he reminded himself, using a strip of rubber as a tourniquet and tying it around her arm above the elbow. Gently, he rubbed the bend of her arm, hoping the vein would react. He couldn't use her left arm because of the IVs already inserted in it and he didn't want to resort to her hands because they were easier to bruise.

It took a few more moments, but he finally saw the faint blue of a vein. Cleaning her skin with an alcohol wipe, he looked at her face once more. Jade looked like herself again, with the exception of paler skin. The images of her enraged, bloody face still flashed in his mind. Naraku steadied the tip of the needle, aligned it at a forty-five degree angle while straightening her arm, and poked through her skin. He sighed with relief when the tube began filling with her blood and loosened the tourniquet from her arm.

 _'It has been a while since I've done this.'_ Naraku shook his head slightly, readying a cotton ball to stop the bleeding. He gently removed the needle and pressed the cotton ball down, but he missed a small dribble, which was pooling at the fold in her arm. Naraku placed the needle on the table beside him and grabbed the used alcohol pad. He turned back and felt his heart nearly explode.

"Shit!" he hissed. Jade was awake! She had reached over with her left arm and pressed her index finger into the blood on her arm. Jade's breathing was slow, steady, and her heart rate hadn't changed at all.

 _'Mine just spiked through the roof. Fuck me.'_ Naraku's breathing was labored, his heart was pounding, and he had broken out into a sweat. Jade removed her finger from the blood and leaned back onto her pillow. She began smearing the blood with her thumb onto the tips of her other fingers, as if it felt interesting to her.

"Jade," Naraku said in a low voice. Jade didn't react. She just continued rubbing the blood around her fingers, The blood was already sticky and beginning to dry. "She's still under." Naraku slightly lifted the cotton ball to see if the puncture had stopped bleeding. A single trail of blood trickled down her arm again.

"Drip." Jade said. Naraku stared at her, feeling his heart contemplating life again. The bleeding had stopped, though, and Naraku took the opportunity to clean her arm and fingers. When he wiped off the last bit of red smear from her hand, Jade's eyes widened and she stared at her hand intensely. She seemed shocked that the blood was now gone.

After turning out the lights and bagging up the utensils he used, Naraku sat next to Jade. He left the dim light above her bed on so he could see her. Jade seemed intrigued about why everything was darker now, her eyes shifting around slowly.

"I know you can't hear me, but I," Naraku stopped. He thought he saw Jade nod, but she had just reclined back on her pillow instead. Her eyelids were blinking slower and staying closed longer. Naraku looked at the wall behind her instead. "Perhaps I can show you what I've found someday. You would find it interesting."

"Drip." Jade whispered, her eyes staying closed. Naraku wondered what she was dreaming about. He stayed a few minutes longer, making sure she wouldn't wake up again before shutting the last light off and quietly exiting her room. He tossed the bloody alcohol pad and cotton ball into the nearest bio-hazard waste can he could find and made his way down to the main floor.

Naraku emptied Jade's blood into the tube with her crystal. He figured since it changed color with her blood, it should remain in contact with her blood. Just like the crystal with his blood, this one began to sizzle and bubble. Naraku wrote the last portion of his entry in his notebook before leaving the office and retiring to his bed for the night.

 _'I will sign that malignant agreement in the morning.'_ Was his last thought before drifting away.

 **000000**

"Why?" Jade whimpered. She had fallen asleep in her new house and found herself back in that cold, dark place. She had no sense of up or down. The echoes of her voice were swallowed up by the nothingness. The sound of her labored breathing was her only comfort of familiarity. Jade's teeth began to chatter; her body from her neck down was colder than her head by magnitudes. She lifted her right hand to touch her face for warmth and gasped when she heard the splashing and dripping of water. She was floating in water?

"Why," she breathed, now twisting around and feeling the resistance of the water around her. "No, no, why is it deeper? It was barely a puddle last time!"

When something grabbed her left wrist, a soft, surprised, "Oh," was all Jade could mutter before being dragged under. Jade tried to pull herself free, but from her shoulder down to her fingers, she had gone so numb it was beginning to burn. She yanked, pulled, kicked, and even wished she had something to saw her doomed arm off with, but she continued being pulled down.

 _'What is that?'_ Jade's attention had been drawn to something visible, bright...pink? It was almost soothing to look at simply because it wasn't black. Though, she wasn't sure if she liked that she was being pulled towards it. She had to close her eyes as she was dragged closer; it was too bright and Jade wasn't sure she could witness her end.

When she opened her eyes, she had a split second to realize she was standing high up on a building.

"Jade! Stop!" a voice shouted loudly. Jade's head snapped to the direction of the voice. It wasn't hers! She saw a tall man with long black hair running at her! Why? What did he want? Jade looked back down the side of the building and then back at the man. He reached out and grabbed her left wrist, pulling her away from the ledge.

Air filled her lungs as she inhaled deeply. Her eyes shot open, but she instantly winced and bent her head down towards her lap. While shading her eyes, Jade saw the needle taped to the bend of her left arm and felt her heart start pounding against her chest.

 _'What is going on? What did it do to me?'_ Jade ripped the tape from her arm and yanked the needle out; the warmth of her blood now dripping down her arm. She peeled the monitor patches from her chest and swung her legs to the side of the bed, sliding onto her feet.

"This isn't where I was! I was...I had a house!" Jade's voice was raspy and it pained her to speak loudly. However, she was more concerned with her life. She had moved on with her life! Whenever she was dragged into the dark place, she always woke back up in her house she bought after graduating and finding a job! Always! A door swung open and two women and a man spilled into the room with her.

"Jade, you need to stay calm," the first woman urged, holding both hands up to show she meant no harm. Jade's eyes darted from her, to the second, younger woman, and to the man. Tucked in his right hand was a capped needle.

"Get that away," Jade told him.

"If you stay calm, it won't come near you." the second woman explained. Jade looked around the room; a closet, a TV, a bed, curtains on either side of the bed and the loud blaring screech of a detached heart monitor.

"Hospital," Jade murmured when the word popped into her head. Her thinking process was panicked, but it felt like swimming through sand at the same time.

"Yes, you're in a hospital. You've been here a couple of days. We need you to get back in bed, though." the first nurse, a brunette with matching brown eyes said. She pointed to the bed.

"My phone?"

"Check the closet for her phone." the first nurse said to the second woman, a lighter-haired brunette with blue eyes. "Come on, back to bed, please."

"Okay." Jade gave up. Her body felt heavy now that the adrenaline had worn off. She crawled back in while the first nurse held her bloody arm outward.

"Here," the second nurse said, handing Jade her phone. "It's turned off."

"We have spare chargers if it's low." the first nurse added.

"We'll go tell Lauren she woke up." the man announced, walking out with the second nurse.

"My name is Joice. I've been your daytime nurse for the past two days."

"Hi." Jade said uncertainly.

"I know, you probably don't recognize me." Joice began wiping the blood from Jade's arm.

"What happened?"

"Well, that's what your visitors have been, uh, loudly discussing since you got here."

"Can I go home? I feel okay. I'm just tired." Jade said, waiting for her phone to turn on.

"That's up to the doctor." Joice taped a cotton ball over Jade's former IV puncture. She walked around to the cabinets near the door, grabbing a few packets and walking back to Jade.

"You said I've been here how long?" Jade asked when she saw the date on her phone. She recognized the numbers; she knew what they meant, but they weren't registering.

"You were admitted Monday, so the seventeenth. Today is Wednesday."

"Yeah, Monday was the last day for the first three steps of extractions," Jade said. That was the freshest memory in her mind.

"Extractions? Of what?" Joice quizzed, prepping Jade's left hand for the new IV needle.

"Phosphorus." Her eyes closed as she kept repeating the word in her head, hoping it would kick-start the rest of her memories.

"I thought I heard one of them say you worked in the university's chemistry lab." Joice said, finally inserting the needle and taping it down. "Do you want me to call anyone for you?"

"No. I'll do it."

"Alright. It might be a while before the doctor can see you, but buzz for me if you need anything in the meantime." Joice left the room quickly. Jade found Sango's number and called it.

"Who is this and why are you using Jade's phone?" Sango demanded.

"Uh, Jade from State Farm," Jade responded. That response was almost a muscle reflex, so she figured she said that a lot in the past.

"WHAT? WHAT?" Sango screeched. A large clunking noise followed and then a chorus of screaming began.

"Hello?"

"WE'RE COMING!" Sango yelled before hanging up.

"O-Okay." Jade blinked. She checked her notifications and found an email from Bruce sent early in the day on Monday. He was requesting permission for Jade to drive university vehicles for field trips, conventions, official work with other businesses, and other, less-exciting uses. The request had gone through and Bruce emailed her about scheduling a brief driving test. Hitting reply, Jade asked him if next week would be okay.

 _'I'll be fine by next week. I don't feel sick.'_ Jade told herself. It was a strange sensation, but her memories were slowly filling in the voids of her mind; almost like pouring water into a cup. She was hungry for steak, or chicken, and she wanted a few beers. She also wanted to play Killer Instinct. A regional tournament was coming up and she needed to practice for it. She needed her book for class so she could catch up. She needed to get back to Naraku so they could finish Fraction III and continue with…

"Oh," Jade's eyes squeezed shut. The headache was instantaneous and sharp. It was almost like her head was splitting in half! "No, no! They're ruined!" she whimpered. The slow pouring of memories turned into a bursting dam. All weekend. Pouring, mixing, injecting, shaking; over and over. She slept, she woke, she slept, she woke. Her hand slowly drew a circle, and then added clumps inside the circle, and around the clumps, she added two chubby, eight-legged creatures. Echoes of breaths; heavy, tired exhales, quiet curses, and pleads to her eyes to stay open just a bit longer. Naraku laughing at her jokes, explaining her homework to her as he drew perfect diagrams on the board, his shouts as he ran towards her and pulled her back from the ledge...Jade's stomach was turning and boiling now. Her arms and shoulders trembled and Jade wished she had never woken up.

Jade had no idea how long she had been holding her head, but she was treading the flood of her thoughts when the door to the room flew open for the second time. "Jade! Jaaaaade!" a woman called excitedly. Jade saw three people approaching her and cringed, pulling her legs and arms as close to herself as she could.

"Don't! Don't touch me!" Jade begged, keeping her head tucked into her lap and under her arms.

"Jade? Don't you recognize me?"

"I'm...I don't," Jade knew her and her voice, but her mind was so overloaded that it felt like she was about to stop operating entirely. She knew, but she couldn't bring the name from her mind to her mouth!

"Is she going to be sick?" one of the other women said. Jade knew her, too! But why couldn't she think of her name? It was there along with the other two names, but again, the traffic flow in her brain had jammed.

"Back, back, back, please!" a fourth voice urged. "Jade, I need you to take a deep breath now,"

"Is something wrong? Is she brain damaged?" the first woman asked abruptly. Her accent was soothing, and it reminded Jade of home, but that was all her brain would allow her.

"That isn't my call," the calmer woman replied. "Sedative, please."

"No," Jade cried. She didn't want to go back to that dark, cold place. She wanted her quiet, safe house.

"She just woke from a coma! Don't do that to her!"

"Ma'am, I can't let her do this! It's too much stress on her heart!"

Jade's body went limp before her eyes closed. All she heard was the bickering between the two women and the younger two trying to calm them down. Then, nothing. No sounds. No sights. Just the heaviness of her body and the gravity weighing her down. Even her fingers felt like blocks of cement.

First, she recognized sounds. Now there was a man bickering with the woman.

 _'Aunt Rosa,'_ Jade finally remembered her name. Her mind released the man's name; Bruce. Her aunt was threatening him, calling him a liar, insisting Jade would never do that. Bruce was calm, but the distress in his voice was audible even to Jade's half-conscious mind. He swore he wasn't a liar, that he had two witnesses to back him up, and that he knew Jade would never do those things unless something was very wrong.

"One of those witnesses has put his hands on her at least once and, if I remember correctly, the other smashed glass on her face." a younger voice answered. It was Sango.

"The glass incident was an accident." Bruce insisted. "As for Naraku, I won't defend him, but even he was frightened by her. Jade is the student I am most proud of. I wouldn't say these things about her to defend those two assholes."

"But you let her work with them!" Rosa shot. Jade knew that tone all too well. She was probably furiously pointing at Bruce, too.

"Jade chose that, not me. I offered several times to recommend her to other labs, I have offered for her to have her own hours where those two were not allowed in the lab; she turned these offers down. She willingly agreed to work under Naraku. I can't do anything about that."

"Even if he does this to her? Look at those bruises around her neck!"

"That wasn't Naraku."

"Oh, he's the one who allegedly saved her life by dislocating her shoulder! I forgot! Where does he live? I should send him a thank-you card!"

"I'm done arguing with you. I came here because she sent me an email." Bruce sighed heavily.

"About what?" Sango asked.

"She asked if next week was fine for her to finish the university license test." he answered.

"Sounds like her." Sango said.

"She's a workaholic. It's in her blood." Rosa stated proudly. Jade's eyes had opened, but she was slowly blinking them to adjust them to the light. She saw her aunt first. Rosa looked exactly the way Jade had last seen her; brown hair so dark it was nearly black, brown eyes, lips and nails painted red, smokey eye shadow, and lightly browned skin. She was wearing a flowing black sundress with red, yellow, and orange flower prints nearly covering the entire dress. Rosa hadn't aged or changed her style since Jade could first remember seeing her when she was a toddler.

"Is it still Wednesday?" Jade asked aloud, hoping that another two days hadn't passed.

"Jade!" Rosa called out excitedly. Jade held her hand up to prevent any overzealous hugs.

"Oh, thank goodness. When you sent me that email, I nearly shit myself," Bruce announced, walking closer to Jade's bed.

"It's Wednesday, Jade." Sango insisted. Jade glanced over at her and saw Kagome, who was so shocked, she had her hands clamped over her mouth.

"Okay. Can I be released yet?" Jade whined.

 **000000**

"I'll get your bath ready," Kagome said as she walked to the second bathroom that was mainly used by Jade.

"Can you close the door? I can't deal with the noise." Jade called out as she relaxed in a halfway sitting position and a halfway laying on her side position on the couch. Kagome agreed and did just that.

"Do you want me to help you?" Rosa asked Jade, stroking Jade's hair softly.

"No, I'll be fine." Jade replied.

"Are you foolin'? We had to carry you up the steps!"

"You held me up. I walked."

"You think you can drop the pride for five minutes?"

"Auntie, I'm tired, I'm in pain...I don't want to be messed with."

"I told you not to talk to that man. Now you think you did something wrong."

"Bruce wouldn't make that up."

"His loyalty is to his job; not you." Rosa insisted strongly as she waved her hand back and forth.

"He wouldn't make it up." Jade repeated, closing her eyes.

"He would." Rosa walked away, mumbling something in Spanish. All Jade heard was, "Professor Puta."

It had been an hour and Jade was laying still in the water. She moved slowly because her muscles had finally regained contact with her brain, telling it that they had hurt this entire time and Jade now needed to be aware of it. They were stiff, rigid, and sharp pains rang throughout her body, but mostly in her left arm and chest. The other reason she was slow was because of the sound of the water. Over and over, she told herself, "It's warm." It wasn't the same water in her dream...coma...whatever that was. It didn't help much, though. It still made splashing and dripping noises and despite being warm, the sounds alone sent chills through her body. So, she tried to make the least amount of noise possible.

"Are you alright?" Sango asked, lightly knocking on the door.

"Y-Yeah," Jade called out. "I'm just...the water is warm."

"Let us know. Dinner's almost ready. Rosa said she was making your favorite."

 _'I shouldn't be annoyed,'_ Jade scolded herself. Her aunt and her two friends had every right to check on her. Koga, Ginta, and the rest of The Pack had every right to blow up her social media with hopes, prayers, and compassion, and Bruce had every right to express his concern, but also inform her of the situation she left at the school. But, Jade wanted to be left alone. She didn't want to be fussed over. She didn't want to be constantly checked on. She didn't want someone to help her get dressed. She had grown so accustomed to the loneliness in her coma dreams that she preferred it now.

 _'I need to sign that agreement so I can stay in school.'_ Jade remembered. But, she needed her phone to email people, which was charging in her bedroom. It was time to dry off and start working.

Jade sat at the table after drying off and dressing in her pajamas. She tried to feel normal, act normal, but she lost her energy and ended up resting her upper body on the table like a drunk who finally hit their alcohol threshold. Sango sat beside her and gently rubbed her back, opting to stay silent as Rosa instructed Kagome on how to cook the perfect tamales. Jade glanced up and saw that Kagome was actually taking notes, which she had no issue with. If Kagome could nail her aunt's recipe, that was more often Jade could eat tamales.

"Any meat should work and I have tried it with tofu, too. A lot of patrons are vegans and vegetarians, so I have plenty of recipes for that, too. Jade will eat just about anything if you slap green chile on it." Rosa explained as she removed the oven mitts from her hands.

"What I want to know is how did Jade turn out to be a lousy cook with you around?" Sango asked jokingly. Jade remained silent, but she had a point.

"She is good at prep, so she's not hopeless. Jade can mix some great drinks, though. Her lemonade is always a big hit with the patrons." Rosa countered. "She even perfected Mama's chili pepper tea."

"That sounds dangerous." Kagome said in a small voice.

"Jade, have you not made stuff for your roommates?" Rosa asked.

"She made chicken and dumplings," Kagome said.

"She seasoned and marinated our steaks. That was really good." Sango added.

"That's it? No tea or lemonade?" Rosa looked up at the ceiling, praying for forgiveness for Jade in Spanish. "Jade, Mama and I raised you better than that."

"I'm tired. Quit telling Quetzalcoatl to forgive me." Jade grumbled without lifting her head from the table.

"God forgives you for that slight and so do I."

"Okay, Auntie. Can you tell the Feathery One to give me my health back?"

"Ai, is she like this with you two?" Rosa asked exasperatingly, pointing at Kagome and Sango. They both glanced at each other and shook their heads.

"No, she's quiet, but she's fun, too." Kagome answered.

"Occasionally sarcastic, but we do it to her, too. Jade is a good friend and roommate." Sango said, patting Jade's back gently.

"She has always been gentle, and sweet, and forgiving." Rosa cooed, her tough exterior immediately melted when she said it. "I love you, Jade. I don't mean to embarrass you."

"It's okay. Love you, too, Auntie."

The green tamale was teasing Jade with its aroma and perfection. She wanted to eat it nicely, but she was also starving and couldn't hold a fork and a knife at the same time. Jade pulled the plate closer to herself, held the tamale still with her fork, and bit into it.

"We can cut it for you," Kagome said, but Jade shook her head as the juice of the meat and peppers ran down her chin.

"I'm good." Jade replied, her mouth still full. She was just happy that it didn't hurt to chew.

"We haven't had much of a chance to talk, but what do you do, Rosa? Do you run a restaurant?" Sango asked curiously. Rosa laughed and shook her head.

"Technically, no, but a big part of my job is cooking." Rosa took a small bite and swallowed quickly. "My mama and I own a piece of land in northern New Mexico. It was a ranch, but we've turned it into a mountain resort. There are plenty of trails to hike and explore, a lot of beautiful places to take pictures, and sightseeing tours in areas around our little town. Each are within reasonable distance. So people stay with us."

"Oh, like a bed and breakfast?" Kagome asked.

"Mhm. My mama started it, and now I run it with her help, and," Rosa sighed heavily. "It would go to Jade after me since she's the oldest of Mama's grandbabies, but she doesn't seem interested."

"I suck at cooking." Jade complained, her teeth biting down on the pepper again.

"If you can learn to play games, you can learn to cook better."

"Apples and oranges, Auntie."

"If you can go three days with little sleep and learn all of that science, you can learn to cook." Rosa corrected. Jade stopped chewing for a moment, then she shrugged and nodded.

"Fair enough." Jade agreed.

"You wear me out." Rosa groaned.

"Imagine how I feel." Jade said back with a small smirk.

"Jade, what about your parents?" Kagome asked, glancing at Sango, who waved her hand furiously at Kagome to hush up.

"Um, no idea. I only know Mama and Auntie." Jade replied, ignoring Sango's gesture.

"Her mom was my little sister. She got in with the wrong crowd. She had Jade when she was seventeen and she left the hospital and Jade without a trace or note. She didn't even name Jade; Mama did, for her green eyes. We filed a report, but because her stuff was gone, they assumed she ran away. We don't know much else." Rosa explained, watching Jade carefully as she told the story. Jade seemed unbothered by the discussion. That or she was desperately hungry. But, Jade never voiced any sadness or disappointment about her birth parents' absence in the past, either.

"I'm sorry, Jade." Kagome said softly.

"I'm not. I can't be upset if I never knew her." Jade wiped her mouth with a napkin and shrugged. "Mama and Auntie took care of me."

After eating, Jade collapsed on the larger couch and began typing away on her phone. It was getting late and Jade wanted to contact the department head as soon as possible. Kagome and Sango had brought Jade's car back to the apartment parking lot earlier, which was a plus for Jade. If she could reach her car, she was as good as gold. Jade turned her head when her aunt opened the sliding glass door, entering the apartment with a loud, dramatic sigh.

"Mama, Jade refuses to come home. You need to talk to her and tell her it's okay to take a semester off." Rosa said as she approached Jade from the hallway.

"I will do no such thing. She can make her own decisions." Mama's voice echoed from Rosa's phone. Rosa rolled her eyes and Jade watched her quietly.

"She isn't thinking right. Her brain is damaged."

"It is not." Jade griped. The doctor told her and Jade that at this point, Jade showed no signs of brain damage except some memory loss, and that was predicted to be temporary. The only thing the doctor wanted to monitor was her heart. Even her torn muscles, as much as they hurt, were expected to heal fine without surgery.

"Is Jade happy? Is she having fun in school? Is she playing games? Making money?" Mama listed off. Her calm voice dripped through the phone like honey; sweet and soothing. "If so, leave her there. She'll call us if she needs us."

"Fine, Mama. I'll leave early tomorrow and be home by Friday to help you with our next group. Do you want to talk to Jade and give her love?"

"I'm sure she got plenty from you. I'll call her Monday when she's feeling better."

"You gave Jade her first smile." Rosa said as Jade giggled at her.

"Good. Have a safe drive. Bring some milk." And with that, Mama ended the phone call. Rosa shook her head.

"I'm not so sure you're not her daughter, sometimes."

"Why is that?" Jade asked, motioning for a pillow. Rosa handed her one and sat on the smaller couch.

"You both have those cold veins. Me and your mom? We'd snap at the drop of a hat and scream someone into next week before the hat touched the ground. You and Mama? The world could be on fire and you both would act like the Post Office just closed early."

"I get mouthy."

"But you don't go crazy about it."

"I apparently did a few days ago." Jade quipped, closing her eyes to prepare herself for the, "I don't believe that," speech.

"I don't believe that!" Rosa stated venomously. "They lie! You would never! I'm so sad that you believe them and doubt yourself. God knows the truth and he will reveal it to us."

"I do have that fiery Latina blood," Jade continued, unable to hold back her smirk.

"You have Mama's - oh you little - stop instigating me!" Rosa hissed, lightly slapping the side of the cushion where Jade's feet lay. Jade snickered, but found herself unable to open her eyes. Her body demanded sleep, so she gave in.

After helping Jade to bed, Sango walked back into the living room where Rosa was sharing various pictures and videos of Jade with Kagome, who was giggling and cooing over the ones she found the cutest.

"You both are welcome to our home for free for all you've done for Jade." Rosa stated once Sango sat on the couch Jade had been sleeping on.

"Oh, I haven't done that much," Kagome said.

"She would have starved to death without you." Rosa replied sarcastically. Then she looked at Sango. "Now that she isn't here to deflect the conversation, who is this Naraku guy?"

"I don't know him, but he's...I don't know where to start," Sango exhaled.

"He's very manipulative and his satisfaction relies on how much misery he can cause others. He's working on his Master's degree and Jade is...helping him." Kagome explained slowly.

"Oh." Rosa said. Then she looked up. "Is he cute?" Both Sango and Kagome leaned back, staring wide-eyed at each other.

"Does it matter?" Sango asked carefully.

"No. I'm just curious."

"Hold on, I have a picture," Kagome said, quickly unlocking her phone. Rosa leaned over while softly singing, "Oooooh."

"Kagome, what are you doing taking pictures of him?" Sango asked exasperatedly. She felt like the only person in the world not secretly hypnotized by his good looks.

"It was part of a joke. I drew pictures on it and sent it to Jade." Kagome answered. "Here he is,"

"Dios mío," Rosa fanned herself with her hand. "No wonder she puts up with him."

"He's horrible to her. I don't care how hot he is." Sango said bitterly.

"Oh, I'll slit his throat if I see him." Rosa stated sweetly as she smiled. "And I won't ever repent."

"Do you have any idea why she tolerates him? She tells me that he isn't bad all the time, but it's still abuse if it's continuous." Sango asked.

"I mean, the few times I've seen them together in class, they go back and forth at each other constantly. She says things to instigate him, too." Kagome added.

"I've known Jade all her life, and I couldn't tell you what she's thinking. I can tell you what she'll do, but not what she's thinking." Rosa said as she leaned back. "Growing up, she always talked to the kids no one wanted to talk to. She came home one day, upset in her own little Jade way, and told me that one kid at school didn't have money to eat. So she shared her lunch. I told her she did the right thing. The next day, I sent extras with her. Mama and I had a barbeque that weekend and invited everyone, including the kid and his parents, so they could all eat and take whatever leftovers they could without being embarrassed. Later down the road, that kid became a bully and picked on everyone but her. She did this with several people in her classes."

"Do you think her mom rejecting her had something to do with it? Maybe it hurts her and she doesn't like seeing other people being cast out." Kagome suggested as she shifted her position.

"It might, but she never mentions it. All I know is she gives her kindness to those she thinks need it before those she thinks deserve it." Rosa said. "I just wish she would realize they won't always return it."

 **000000**

When the apartment door clicked shut, Jade threw her blankets from her body. She had already dressed for the day, but had to hide it from her aunt and roommates. If they knew she planned on going out, Sango and Kagome would both guilt her into staying home and Aunt Rosa would yell until Jade went deaf. She agreed with all of them; she did need to stay home. She did need to rest more.

 _'But I also can't sleep easy until I settle this.'_ Jade stood from her bed and shuffled to her door. Once she stepped out into the hallway, her body stiffened with pain and Jade fell to her knees.

"Oooookay, this is going to be an ordeal," she panted.

It took her ten minutes to reach her car. The older couple who lived in the apartment below Sango, Kagome, and Jade were sitting on their patio with their breakfast. The man stood up and called out to Jade, asking if she needed help. Jade told him she was fine. She waved to them as she drove off, hoping that would quell any urges to tell Sango and Kagome that their weird roommate was nearly crawling to her car that morning.

"Well, at least driving isn't an issue." Jade sighed. When her left arm began to stiffen, she added, "For the most part." So, she relied on her right hand and arm to control the car. The soreness in her dominant arm was nothing to the screech-worthy jolts of pain in her left arm.

Jade reached her first destination without much issue. Getting out of the car and walking to the door was the real issue. She took a minute to rest while staring at the door of Sesshomaru's house. She had weaseled his address out of Bruce so she could properly apologize to Sesshomaru. Jade glanced back at the house. It was small, but since he lived alone, it was probably what he preferred. The brick was painted a light gray, the roof panels and shingles were a dark gray, and the front door was white. Jade finally pulled herself from her car and waddled and limped to the door. Despite there being only three steps leading to the brick and concrete porch, they felt like six, which additionally felt like sixty. She tapped the doorbell with her right fist because her fingers didn't feel like uncurling from their clenched position.

Moments later, the door opened and Sesshomaru stared back at her, blinking a few times, almost as if the sight of her stung his eyes. Jade gave one swift wave and a soft, awkward, "Hey," but she found herself unable to speak anything else. The left side of his face was heavily bruised; a painted mess of purple, blue, brown, and yellow. The cut on his lip had scabbed over. Jade felt her pulse quicken.

 _'Did I really do that to him?'_

"Jade," Sesshomaru began, tilting his head. "Are you...alright?" He remembered the last time she had a silent breakdown all too well.

"I'm just really sick with myself. I'm so sorry."

"About this?" he asked, pointing to his face. "Don't be."

"What?" Jade's mouth dropped open. Sesshomaru stepped back and motioned for her to come in. When he noticed she was having trouble, he held her right arm to steady her and guide her towards his couch.

"You look like a corpse."

"Thanks." Jade said with a huff.

"I suppose I don't look much better." Sesshomaru quipped, but his tone was calm, as if discussing the weather. Jade absentmindedly rubbed her left arm and her chest, watching Sesshomaru walk into his open kitchen and pour a glass of water. "Are you hungry?"

"No." Jade insisted.

"You're lying."

"I'm not going to eat your food after I beat the shit out of you."

"I don't know why you think I'm angry about that. If anything, I'm impressed and I deserved it."

"No one deserves that."

"No one? Not even Hitler? Stalin?" Sesshomaru asked, rinsing off a bundle of green grapes.

"No one deserves it from me. What other people do isn't my business. I don't like that stuff. I play games with that stuff in them, but I," Jade cut off when Sesshomaru handed her the glass of water and placed the bowl of grapes on the cushion beside her. He sat down in the chair across from her and pet the blue tie he was wearing to keep it from wrinkling.

"I know. I'm still not angry."

"I guess I don't understand."

"I hit you in the face with a beaker, I destroyed the slides you made, and I purposely ruined the samples you helped extract." Sesshomaru recited, holding up three fingers.

"But you didn't mean to do those things to me."

"But I did them nonetheless. I was due for a fair retaliation."

"That isn't fair!" Jade whined with frustration as she pointed at his bruised face. Sesshomaru looked away for a moment, almost as if he was fighting away a smirk, and then locked gazes with her.

"Then we fundamentally disagree. You don't hit people, yet you did, and I wasn't intentionally coming after you, but I did. In my mind, it's fair." Sesshomaru crossed his right leg over his left, planted his elbow on the arm of his chair, and rested his unbruised cheek on his fist. "Though, I doubt apologizing was the only reason you came here."

"Bruce won't divulge details to me, Naraku is ghosting me; all I know to be true is from the camera footage of me running away with Naraku chasing me. I need to know the truth before I meet with the dude in charge later and I figured you wouldn't hide it from me." Jade explained, finally plopping a few grapes into her mouth. He was right. She was very hungry...and stressed.

"When you came back from class, you looked ill, much like you do now, minus the neck bruises, which were caused by me. You said you were going home, realized how suspicious we all looked, and then you found the bottles." Sesshomaru paused, glancing at his watch.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"I have a meeting to leave for in about an hour."

"Oh my God. They're going to wonder what the hell happened to you." Jade groaned, hiding her face in her hands.

"If they ask, I'll tell them I fell down some stairs." Sesshomaru retorted dryly. A snort escaped Jade's nose, so she clamped her hands and nose around her mouth.

"I shouldn't laugh." she said, her voice heavily muffled.

"You can laugh. It's amusing." Sesshomaru said back. "During another one of our bickering sessions, you were very upset; inconsolable. You were hyperventilating, sobbing, and you were crouched down. When I turned back to you to own up to my part, your mood, your health, and your personality had done a one-eighty."

"Oh."

"The very strange part was the blood dripping from your nose and mouth. Instead of being doubled over with fatigue, your entire body was rigid and ready for a fight. You looked absolutely furious. You almost didn't look like you. I don't know how else to explain it. Bruce called your name and that's when you screamed and attacked me."

"Wait," Jade held her hand up. "I was bleeding before anything happened?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Jade exhaled heavily. She assumed the bloody nose and mouth she was told about came from the fight. Why was she bleeding before anything physical? Why was she bleeding while having a meltdown? Jade's eyes widened slightly when she heard a drip. Her entire body was hit with a wave of coldness that froze her to the bone. Every muscle in her body locked up. Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Jade?" Sesshomaru called out, noticing her terror-stricken expression.

"Did I," Jade's voice trembled, so she stopped and swallowed. "Did I say anything? During the attack?"

"As a matter of fact, you did. Why? Do you remember something?"

"N-No." she lied quickly. She remembered something; darkness, coldness...and that damn dripping noise! "I hear your sink dripping. I don't know why, but ever since I woke up, I've hated dripping noises."

"Hm." Sesshomaru stood from the chair and walked back into his kitchen. He tweaked the sink's handle slightly until the dripping ceased. "That is a strange symptom to wake up with."

"I don't understand it either." Jade exhaled as her body released its fearful tension.

"I mean, I've read cases where people have woken from comas with the ability to speak a different language, play an instrument, a high increase in sexual appetite, completely different personalities, and many others; but a hatred for the sound of dripping water? Very strange."

"Yep. It's a thing that I hope will go away."

"I know Naraku and I are being forced to go to different therapy sessions, but maybe you should think about going, too?" Sesshomaru suggested.

"Coming from a guy who has to be forced into it, thanks. I'll give it some thought." she replied sweetly, but the sarcasm was heavy and Sesshomaru actually smirked about it.

"Fair enough." he replied, sitting back down in his chair. "You asked about what you said. I remember some details, but this is also the point where you gave me a concussion."

"I'm so sorry."

"I will be fine. After you tackled me, you screamed, "My samples, my slides, my face," and gave me three well-delivered punches. Then you started slamming my head into the floor while screaming, "Mine." I don't remember how many times you did or if you said anything after that."

It took everything and more from Jade to keep from screaming and crying at that point. It really was her voice she heard in her dream! Was it a dream at all?

 _'Was I hearing it while it was happening? Is that even possible?'_

"Naraku pulled you from me, but because he's weak, you broke free, flipped the table, and tried to go after Bruce. I pulled you down and put you in a choke hold, but you never lost consciousness. It was almost as if you didn't need to breathe. You were actually able to push yourself, with me on top, from the floor and you elbowed me in the ribs twice. I let go. That's when you ran out of the lab and Naraku chased after you with the chloroform. You will have to get the rest of the story from Naraku. He was the only one on the roof with you."

"I doubt I'll hear it from him." Jade replied bitterly. She didn't expect her cold mentor to say, "I'm so glad you're okay," but a message saying, "Alright," or, "We're discussing more papers on Tuesday, bitch," would have been enough.

"He saved you from jumping off the roof." Sesshomaru broke the moment of silence. "Or so he said."

"It feels like he saved me from not getting an ass-whoopin'."

"I don't know what you've been told, but I highly doubt Naraku did those things to you, though he owned up to dislocating your shoulder because he saved you. He's rather fond of you in his own twisted way. I've never known him to admit to helping anyone, let alone actually doing it. He seemed sincere."

"I didn't think he knew how." Jade remarked.

"Neither did I." Sesshomaru admitted, scratching an itch on his ear. "I cannot make you forgive yourself. It doesn't matter how many times you apologize to me or how many times I tell you I don't care that you did it. There's a first time for everything."

"I know." Jade murmured, staring at her lap. "I just hate that I wasn't able to consciously make that choice."

 **000000**

Jade found one of the tables circling the giant fountain area on campus and sat down. She hated the water, but she physically couldn't go much farther without a rest. She grit her teeth and had to slowly lower herself because even sitting was painful for her stiff muscles. Her entire body felt like it was chained to itself and she had to fight the resistance of her own weight and strength. It was exhausting. It was painful. Yet, she insisted on it. This was her chance, her only chance, to stay in school.

"Damn." she panted, putting her head down on her right arm, which rested on the table. Her left arm remained in her lap. Folding it too much hurt, letting it hang stung, and resting it in her lap burned, but it was less painful than the other two options.

 _'Why did I agree to this meeting?'_ Jade lamented. She gave it some thought and realized she did that quite often; agreeing to painful situations instead of just avoiding them entirely. Jade didn't want to ask Sango or Kagome for help because they had done so much for her and her aunt already. She didn't want to ask Bruce because when she last spoke to him, he sounded reluctant about speaking to her because of her aunt's fury. Sesshomaru had left for his meeting out of town. Otherwise, he was her first choice because he was the only person involved in the situation who wasn't apprehensive with her. Naraku wasn't answering her texts or calls and even if he was on speaking terms with her, she still wouldn't ask him because he was Naraku.

 _'I just have to do it by myself. It's my problem. Besides, I'm almost to the Science Building and I still have twenty minutes.'_ Jade resigned to her decision. It made her feel the most comfortable, despite the physical pain she was in. Her eyes closed and she felt herself drift away. She heard the dripping noise again and when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, Jade's body shook itself awake, dragging her back into the reality.

"Jade," Naraku said, pulling his hand from her shoulder. "What are you doing here?"

"A meeting with...the head of the department." she answered slowly. What were the odds of him finding her there? He must have spotted her when going to lunch.

"In your current condition? Well, I suppose it will gain you sympathy points."

"That isn't why I did this. I just wanted to get it done with so I can move on." Jade couldn't bring herself to look at him, but she also didn't like talking to his crotch, so she looked down at her phone instead. She unlocked it and gasped. Five minutes!

"What?" Naraku asked.

"I have five minutes and I'm not fast! I have to go!" Jade tried to stand quickly, but again, her body absolutely refused. Whenever she tried to move quickly, it felt like the stiffness became worse, almost as if her body had a mind of its own. Naraku swung around in front of her and knelt down with his back to her.

"Climb on." he ordered.

"Uh," Jade hesitated. His head turned and his eyes locked on hers over his shoulder.

"I'm not going to interfere with your education. If you want to remain a student here, you have to agree to the terms. I had to do the same. Eric will be insulted if you're late, so swallow whatever pride or hateful thoughts you have about me and climb on."

"Okay." Jade replied, actually taking his advice literally and swallowing to moisten her dry mouth. She hadn't noticed it dropped open when he offered a piggy-back ride. She wrapped her right arm around his neck, but rested her left hand on the back of his left shoulder. Naraku hooked his hands under her thighs and stood up effortlessly. It nearly made Jade sick with envy. She wanted to move normally so badly that it seemed to make her hurt more on top of the current hurt she was feeling.

Naraku didn't walk quickly, but he walked with a purpose. He would make it in time. He turned down the center hallway, past the aquarium and terrarium. Jade hid most of her face behind his left shoulder; her green eyes peering over it. She wasn't looking forward to this meeting. She had never met this Eric guy, but if he was able to force Sesshomaru and Naraku to comply, he certainly couldn't be friendly.

"Don't be a smart-ass and don't argue unless you are absolutely sure you have a leg to stand on. Otherwise, you will be fine." Naraku told her, walking into the department office. Jade caught Susan watching them with her mouth hanging open.

 _'Is that because I'm back or is that because he's carrying me?'_ Jade wondered.

"Bruce said that he considers me to be the worst of all of us." Jade said in a quiet voice.

"Set him straight, then." Naraku replied, stopping at the door at the end of the hallway. "Text me when you're done. I'll be around." And with that, he placed Jade down on her feet and walked away before Jade could say, "Thank you," or, "Who are you and where is Naraku?"

"Okaaaaay," Jade said under her breath. She knocked on the door and heard an immediate response of, "Come in." She opened the door, letting out a stream of mental curses when she realized the door was heavier than she thought and heavier than her arms could deal with.

"Is it stuck?" Eric asked, quickly standing up and walking towards his door.

"No, I'm just," Jade breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled the door open for her. "I'm still getting my strength back."

"Oh," Eric replied, gesturing for her to pick a chair. Even though he had a longer distance to walk and a desk to walk around, Eric made it to his chair faster than Jade made it to one of the others.

 _'Fuuuuuck! It feels worse!'_ she panicked.

"Are you sure you should be walking around at this point? Had I known it was this bad, I would have agreed to schedule this for later. I assumed you would have someone helping you."

"No, no, it's fine. I'm better than I was." Jade insisted, finally reaching the middle chair. She slowly sat down and took a moment to breathe. She felt the beads of sweat forming on her forehead and her smile felt more like a grimace.

"You're still not well, it seems."

"I'm fine." Jade exhaled.

"Riiiiiiight." Eric said softly, cupping his hands together on his desk. "Well, I think you know why you're here,"

"I was told, but I don't remember anything."

"I believe that. I have two different forms, terms of agreements, from the university. The first one was based off the story told by three different people, some witnesses, and bits of camera footage. However, Bruce informed me that there was a lot of missing context and I figured that for myself when I found out you were comatose. No one has a violent fit of rage only to fall into a coma afterwards without something being wrong." Eric held the paper across the desk and Jade took it. "So, I contacted Human Resources, the Admissions Office, and the Campus Police, and explained the situation to them. They agreed with us and conjured up a less serious agreement."

"Yeaaaaah, this one is...I don't think I can afford some of this." Jade looked up at him. There were a few mundane things listed; going to therapy sessions and writing an apology letter, but her biggest concerns were listed last; losing her paid positions, a strict campus curfew, and she was to no longer have contact with Naraku and Sesshomaru on campus or while representing the university at any event.

"Well, it would be provided for you by the university. We have a second-chance policy, but your situation is different and you have two options; sign the first form now or bring in a doctor's note explaining your health issues, and then we will let you sign the second form."

"What is on that one?"

"You are not allowed in the department, its labs, or its classrooms after four in the afternoon, which is when the department closes. You're not allowed to be here before eight in the morning, which is when it opens. No weekends. This lasts for six weeks. After that - yes?" he paused, seeing Jade open her mouth to speak, but stop.

"I assist with the Chemistry Lab on Wednesdays and it lasts until five." Jade pointed out. "Unless that form also says that I'm no longer employed by the department like this one."

"No, this one says you can keep your positions. You're proving that this fit of violence of was an uncontrollable health issue triggered by a stressful environment." Eric scratched his cheek quickly. "I'm willing to extend your Wednesday curfew to five for that reason."

"Okay. Well, I have several papers in my car explaining each condition of mine, including the blackout. Will those work?"

"Yes, though you'll have to sign another form saying you're willingly releasing those medical records to us."

"That's fine. Can I just bring them back to you right now?" Jade asked, jerking her thumb in the direction of her parked car.

"If that's what you want to do, then yes." Eric agreed. "But, I do need to ask you a few things,"

"Yeah?"

"I know you already said you don't remember what happened, but are you absolutely sure? What happened on the roof was only between you and Naraku and he claims he only hurt you because you were going to jump."

The memory of Naraku reaching for her flashed in her head. She believed it, especially after Sesshomaru, of all people, said he did. "I don't remember what happened on the roof with him." Jade answered. She had to keep that stance, otherwise, it could be claimed that she really did remember and did consciously attack them. Eric sighed and looked down for a moment. Then, his gaze darted back up at her.

"If you can remember what he did, you will have grounds to have him expelled and sued."

"Not if I attacked him first, which is apparently what I did. Three against one and, to be honest, I don't think they're all lying."

"You're sure?" Eric pressed. Jade blinked and realized what he was trying to do.

 _'He wants me to lie.'_ Jade felt offended. _'I'm not a liar and I'm not going to do Naraku dirty like that. If he really saved me, I owe him that much at least.'_

"Yeah, it's all a black void to me." Jade responded.

"Also, I understand that your aunt plans on suing us. If she has contacted a lawyer, then I can't speak to you about this anymore."

"Oh, ahaha, it's fine. I talked her out of it. She gets upset and then says a bunch of stuff. She went back home this morning."

"Alright. I really get the feeling you're not trying to start trouble and I appreciate that. Thank you for talking to your aunt."

"No problem."

"I'll help you with the door." Eric stood and walked around his desk again. Jade's body felt a little better after resting it. She looked up when she heard Eric's soft, surprised, "Oh!"

"Naraku? Is there something you need?" Eric asked, brushing a wrinkle off his light blue sleeve.

"I just need the cripple. I'm her horse." Naraku responded. "There she is."

"I'm not a cripple." Jade grumbled.

"Yes, yes, and I'm not Japanese," Naraku bent down and let her climb on his back. When he rose, he saw Eric's wide-eyed stare. "Is something wrong?"

"N-No." Eric stammered, his tone still as calm as ever.

"Hm," Naraku sounded unconvinced, but he turned and walked off without another word.

"Were you just waiting there the whole time?" Jade asked.

"Not the whole time. I figured I would have to come back to get you soon, so I grabbed a drink and walked back."

"Oh,"

"It was a better way to utilize my time." Naraku corrected quickly. Jade had the urge to bite him since that was all she was capable of at that point, but she reminded herself that he was still Naraku. He was always going to be Naraku.

"Hey, I parked in the athletic parking lot," Jade said.

"Ironic." he shot playfully.

"The other lots were full, asshole."

"Why not park behind the building?"

"I don't want a ticket." Jade griped. Naraku exhaled loudly, but he left the conversation at that. Jade closed her eyes. It was going to take a few minutes for him get there and she was beyond exhausted. She kept seeing that image of him reaching out for her. She remembered nothing else and it made her feel incredibly guilty. Of all the things; her assaulting Sesshomaru, her flipping the table, her running to the roof, but she only remembered that moment where Naraku seemed so...human.

"Did you agree to the better deal?" Naraku asked, raising his voice above the sound of the spraying water from the fountain as he strode by it. Jade tried her best to ignore it, but her body had a mind of its own and tensed up, almost as if it was being angry for her.

"How did you know there was a better deal?" Jade asked slowly.

"I helped convince him with Bruce that you were sick."

"Eric didn't mention you; only Bruce."

"Color me surprised." Naraku bit sarcastically.

"Well, thanks for doing that. You didn't have to. I'm taking that deal, but I need the medical papers from my car."

"Speaking of cars, you totaled mine." Naraku shot. Jade rolled her eyes. He truly couldn't have a positive moment in his life.

"I'm sorry." she said. A part of her wanted to tell him about Eric trying to get her to lie, but the other part of her said to leave it unsaid. He saved her and she returned the favor. It didn't need to be discussed, especially since Naraku was the type to turn that around on her.

Jade drove herself and Naraku back to the Science Building. He took her back to Eric's office before taking off to his own office to work on more articles. She gave Eric her papers, signed the medical release agreement and the curfew agreement before shuffling back to her car. She sat down in her seat...then pressed her hands to her face as a cry and breath of relief erupted from her mouth.

 _'It's done. I can stay in school.'_


	17. In All My Dreams I Drown

**In All My Dreams I Drown**

"Hm," Bruce hummed as he flipped through the papers Naraku gave to him. Naraku accepted that he was at a dead end and until he could redo the extractions, he was going to continue being stuck. So, he decided to show Bruce what he was dealing with in his samples, but kept the existence of the gem and blood solutions to himself. Naraku unlocked his phone and sighed. Jade hadn't updated him since the previous Thursday when he carried her to her meeting with Eric. In her last text to him, she was pleading with him to tell her what happened on the roof. Naraku was unsure if he wanted to speak about it ever again, let alone to her.

 _'The less she remembers about it, the better.'_

"What in the hell is this?" Bruce asked dramatically. Naraku glanced up, assuming Bruce had reached the pictures he took of his purple microbes.

"That is my problem." Naraku replied calmly, plucking a piece of fuzz from his pants and flicking it away from him.

"You're positive you didn't stain them? Or Jade?"

"Yes." Naraku sighed. "Even if that was an issue, that doesn't explain the amount of diatoms, though."

"No kidding. I can make out a few of them, but yeah, no, you're right. This is impossible to count." Bruce pulled the second picture out from the folder and his eyes widened again, shaking his head. "Does it ever end?"

"Indeed. About twenty centimeters from the bottom up is completely normal. No purple color and no excessive amounts of multiple species."

"Is there a gradual increase?"

"Barely. It's almost instantaneous. Well, instantaneous for lake turnover and sedimentation rates."

"Right." Bruce took the next picture out. It was Naraku's fully intact organic samples. "Same issue here. I mean, these slides and pictures aren't completely useless to you. You could calculate the average size of each species within the field of view of the microscope, along with the amount of microspheres, and at least get an estimation of about how many of these things are on each slide."

"It's difficult to do that when I cannot identify the individual species from one another, though some of them I have identified and counted to the best of my ability. I can try to calculate the amount of each, but the number is going to be inaccurate."

"Everything we know in science today was inaccurate when first observed. If I wasn't able to obtain exact coordinates, I would take being told what I'm looking for is somewhere north of where I'm standing as opposed to just being told good luck. It gives you something to build on." Bruce explained strongly. Naraku had to agree with him and nodded. Something was better than nothing. "This is just the first core they've sent you, right?"

"Yes. It's the core from the northeast quadrant. They're sending me the northwest one in November. The next two will be sent at the beginning and towards the end of next semester."

"Have you found any articles whatsoever about this particular lake? Anything?" Bruce asked worriedly.

"No. It's mentioned in a few articles about Japan's different lakes, which state basic facts, but there is nothing exclusively about this lake in great detail. At least, not from what I can find." Naraku glanced at his phone again. Was Jade avoiding him?

"Well, because you're just a student, you might not have access to everything in the archives." Bruce said, grabbing a pen and scribbling down a few notes on a notepad. "I'll search. I have clearance."

"Alright."

"Will they be sending you soil samples?"

"Yes."

"Good. Contact them and ask them to send identified plant samples and tree cores from the oldest trees they've found, too. Uproot the entire plant, bag it, tag it with the coordinates, and send it this way. Multiple samples from around the entire lake. Coordinates with the tree cores, too. The plantlife will likely yield more answers."

"I will. So, my current goal is to extract what I can and wait for you to find more information." Naraku stated with a heavy sigh. He was normally a patient man, but his samples were driving him insane.

"If there is anything in that lake. I don't see how that lake can have any nutrients with all of the microscopic life ingesting it." Bruce chuckled. "This lake is annoying to hear about, absurd to look at, most likely dead on the inside, and it's salty, so it seems you've found your soulmate."

"You think you're funny."

"I am. Also, I have a list of places and organizations on campus that could use a strapping young man like yourself as a volunteer. "

"Unnecessary. I've already committed my volunteer hours to other, more obscure options." Naraku retorted with a smirk. Bruce groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Those poor, unfortunate souls. Don't forget to have someone sign off to prove that you did do it."

"Anything else, Mother?" Naraku asked sarcastically as Bruce reorganized the papers and pictures back into the folder.

"I'm sorry. Who got you into this situation again?"

"Sesshomaru."

"Yourself, asshole."

"Hm." Naraku looked away as he crossed his arms. "Have you heard from Jade?"

"Not for a few days." Bruce answered, but then his eyes narrowed with suspicion. Why?"

"No reason." Naraku looked back at Bruce blankly. "Did she mention when she would return?"

"No. Eric told me you were carrying her around last week." Bruce said, pushing Naraku's black folder across the desk. Naraku grabbed it and stood up.

"And?"

"What do you mean, "and?" It's unlike you. You've been acting stranger than usual since the whole incident."

"I have not."

"If you're concerned about her, message her. Call her. Don't go around behind her back to find out and make it seem to her that you don't care."

"I don't for the most part. I just care to know if she will return soon enough to assist me or not."

"Well, then, ask her yourself." Bruce replied with a cheeky grin. "Give me about a week to find something for you."

"Fine." Naraku opened the door, but turned back to Bruce, glaring at him. "I don't care about her like that. Don't spread rumors about me through the department."

"I do what I want, just like you." Bruce responded, still grinning. Naraku decided to leave before his temper shoved him into an argument he wasn't prepared for.

Naraku's drive home was quick. He wasn't stopped by a single red light. He chose to return home since Sesshomaru was scheduled to use the lab for the next few days. His two classes rarely required attendance, which was a plus. So, staying home and away from others seemed like an appealing idea.

"Yes, yes, you're hungry," Naraku sighed heavily as the guinea pig's excited, high-pitched squeals rang throughout the apartment. Naraku knew some of the excitement was a greeting, seeing as he was the only other living creature the guinea pig was exposed to, but it was loud. He fed the pig a carrot and sat on his couch, checking his phone again. There was an email alert for a copy of another paper he requested through the university's library a week prior, but nothing from Jade.

 _'I can check her page, I suppose.'_ Naraku realized, typing in her gamertag on his phone and waiting for the results. The first link led to The Pack's website, which featured information about the community, how to join, who sponsored them, and individual, "About Me," pages for every current member, which also included their social media updates. He tapped WeedWolf's page and scrolled down. He saw many comments about her being treated unfairly by, "Alpha," and how WeedWolf should be the figurehead of The Pack. He saw more comments wishing her a speedy recovery and many others reciting her quotes or posting links to their favorite moments of WeedWolf.

 _'Does she realize she has an army at her back?'_ he wondered when he saw that thousands of comments were aimed at her positively. There was one negative comment and that person's account was deleted because it had been blown up by the other thousands who loved her. All Jade had to do was point her finger and these people would attack without a second thought. Naraku knew she wouldn't, though. It wasn't in her nature. He guessed she had no idea how many of these people worshipped her. She probably assumed they were just being kind or showing support for the community by supporting her.

 _'No updates from her, though. Her last one was before the extraction weekend.'_ Naraku exited out and locked his phone. When he closed his eyes, he saw her bloody, enraged face. He felt her pulling away from him as he held her back. Her screams haunted him the most, though. Whether he was sitting quietly while reading or dreaming while sleeping, the echoes would seep into his mind and ears. Even when he was lifting, he would lose his focus and he even stumbled during his sprint because his legs weakened immediately.

"Hm." Naraku hummed with displeasure, looking back at her page. He saw one particular comment being bumped to the top of the list. It was a link to a video. The person who posted it added the comment, "WeedWolf almost died before and she survived, so she'll survive this." Naraku tapped the link and turned his phone sideways to maximize the video screen.

"Oh my God," Jade's voice was strained by laughter. "My face hurts! Hahaha, my face, my fucking face hurts! I'm so glad I'm recording this!"

"Maaaaaan, that was some home-grown, organic bullshit." Koga griped.

"Y-Your...your body just," Jade ran out of breath and cried out while slapping her desk. "Your body just cartwheeled across my screen!" The video began to rewind to the moments before Jade's outburst. She and Koga were teamed up in a first-person shooter. Jade was behind and to the side of Koga, letting him draw fire while she provided cover fire. A large explosion roared and flames covered half of the field. Just as Jade said, Koga's armored character was caught in the blast and his airborne body cartwheeled pathetically across Jade's screen. She began laughing hysterically and the video returned to the spot before it flashed back.

"You gonna be okay?" Koga asked half-skeptically and half-humorously.

"It hurrrrrrrts!" Jade cried. Only the top of her head was visible in the camera's sight.

"Breathe already!" Koga urged when he heard Jade go silent. Her hand slapped the desk once more and when she gasped, her head fell completely out of sight. A large thud followed and then silence. Koga's character was frantically protecting his partner's character, spraying bullets in all directions. Koga was additionally trying to read chat comments while shooting. "Wait, what? She passed out? What? Jade! Jade, come on! Wake up!"

 _'Did she hit her head?'_ Naraku wondered, watching as Koga's face morphed from frustrated to worried.

"Holy shit." Koga choked when he heard Jade's light moan and curse. "Jade? Jade are you okay?"

"Wha-what...happened?" she asked slowly.

"Uuuuh, well, you laughed so hard that you fainted, I think. Is your vision blurry?"

"No. I think I'm okay now." Jade responded, her head appearing in the camera's sight again. She was still smiling as she readjusted her headset and shook her head slightly. "Well, that's embarrassing."

"New rule; you're not allowed to laugh anymore." Koga shot playfully. Jade reached up and rubbed her head.

"Yeah, well, fuck...oh," Jade's expression turned serious when she looked at her hand. Naraku already saw red color matted in her hair. "I'm bleeding. I think I hit my head."

"Alright, I'm coming over there to take you to a doctor." Koga insisted. "Sorry, guys. We'll have to pick this up later." And, with that, his screen went black.

"Yep. This happened. Sorry, everyone. We'll tag you back later." Jade chirped with a crooked grin. "I still see his stupid cartwheeling body playing over and over in my head."

The video ended and Naraku caught himself sighing with relief, which made him feel extremely dense. Of course she was fine. The video was originally posted two years ago.

 _'I don't care. I...do not...care. I've done worse to her with a smile on my face.'_ Naraku pocketed his phone and walked into his office room. He sat at his desk and began reorganizing the restricted notes. No matter how much he studied them, they revealed the same minor details of something bigger and nothing more. But, he still read them anyway.

"Maybe I overlooked something," Naraku said in a low voice, starting with the biologist's notes once again.

He read for hours. His room turned dark from the setting sun, so he turned his desk lamp on, leaving the rest of the room in darkness. Occasionally, he would stare at his purple and pink blood solutions and pick them up to swish them around and hold them against the light of the lamp.

 _'They're so vivid. I've never seen anything quite like it. Even with dim light, they shimmer.'_ Naraku thought, placing the purple solution down into its slot. He stared at the pink one intensely. Though it had been sitting still, the pink liquid appeared to be stirring, almost writhing, due to the reflected light.

 _'Is there a difference between the two other than color?'_ Naraku pulled open a drawer and grabbed one of his small plastic pipettes. He walked to his kitchen to grab a cup and his bottle of vodka and returned to his desk.

"I must be losing my mind." Naraku said to himself, chuckling. He sucked up a small drop of the pink solution into the pipette and ejected it onto his tongue. "Oh!" He almost jumped out of his chair. It was sweet! Not overwhelmingly, though. It was a gentle sweet, almost like a drop of honey. Then, his mouth became warm, as if he sipped freshly brewed tea.

"Damn." Naraku realized he had essentially swallowed the drop instead of rinsing it out with the vodka. The taste was so unexpected and soothing that he forgot what he was doing in the first place. Naraku closed his eyes when the warmth radiated through his body. His muscles relaxed so suddenly that he slid out of his chair and hit the floor.

 _'What the - I can't move!'_ Naraku realized with terror. Every time he tried to move his arms or his legs, a tickling, numbing sensation occurred in the limbs instead. Then, he began to calm down. He should have felt some level of panic; an adrenaline rush, muscle tension, a racing heart, especially since he couldn't move or speak, but his body was hypnotized by the sensation of relaxation. It was disconnected from his mind and his command.

 _'I'm...tired.'_ Naraku's last thought sank with him into a deep sleep.

His fingers were the first parts of his body he could move. When he coiled them into his palm, he gasped. It was sand that his fingers dug through! He still couldn't move much and he could hear the gentle splashing of waves washing onto the beach nearby.

 _'I'm back here? But when did I get here? Did I ever leave?'_ Naraku tried to lift his head, but his entire body was a block of lead.

 _'Fantastic.'_ A stronger wave had washed up faster and farther than the others, soaking him and the sand beneath his body. When a second wave did the same, he began to worry. Was the tide rising? The third wave washed up even farther, causing his body to slightly sink into the sand.

 _'Come on! Move!'_ he tried to scream to his body, but again, it refused. _'What was that?'_ Naraku quieted his mind. It was faint, but he heard a voice. He knew he did. Then, he heard a gasp and a giggle.

"What is that?" a young girl asked with terror.

"It's a person - or a body." a young boy answered. Naraku felt the tip of a stick poke him twice in the back before the third stuck him harsher. "Didn't anyone teach you not to lay face down in the water?"

"If he's dead, he can't answer you, dork. Let's go find someone to help." the girl urged.

"Why? He's dead. The tide will take care of him for free."

"What if his family is worried about him?"

"Maybe they should have taught him not to lay face down in water."

"Maybe he was sick and passed out!"

"You can go find someone if you want." the boy answered sternly. "I want to see how decomposed he is."

"You're a freak!" the girl shot harshly. "I think I hear Mom calling us."

"She's calling you."

"Which includes you since you're with me! Come on, Naraku!"

"Fine. I guess he'll be here a while." the boy replied with a sigh. "Moron."

Naraku heard the children's footsteps growing quieter; one set was quick and worried and the other set was slow and uninspired. Naraku had it figured out now; it was a dream. That's why nothing made sense and why he was reliving one of the few interesting moments from his wretched childhood.

 _'But, why am I the body?'_

Time passed by, or, he assumed it did. The waves were starting to slowly drag his body to the ocean, and that took time, so time was certainly moving forward. He was just waiting to wake up. He thought after fully realizing it was a dream that he would wake up on his floor, but he didn't. He was still immobile; trapped in his own head within his head.

"Oh," someone gasped. "No, no, no, again?"

 _'Jade?'_ Naraku's eyes snapped open.

"Why am I here? I thought I was," Jade asked, her voice laced with confusion and terror.

 _'Why is she here?'_ Naraku was equally confused. His arms pushed him up and Naraku felt his body turn ice-cold. _'I didn't do that.'_ Now on his feet, Naraku turned and spotted Jade limping away, hugging herself. Steadily, he followed her, placing one foot in front of the other in a prowling manner. _'I'm not in control!'_

"Am I back in a coma? Can I wake up?" Jade continued, her voice shaking. Naraku knew she was crying now, her breathing frantic, and yet, she pushed on. Her injured body could barely lift her legs, so her tracks left thick lines in the sand instead of solid, individual footprints. Naraku continued to follow her, pretending her lined tracks were a balance beam and holding his arms out to, "balance," himself.

 _'I'm stalking her! She's injured and I'm...not in control.'_

"Is someone there?" Jade stopped walking and lifted her head. Naraku continued his balancing act, seemingly uncaring that she heard him.

 _'Keep walking, Jade.'_ Naraku urged, fighting to open his mouth. His mouth did open, but he did not speak; he grinned widely.

"I'm alone," she sighed.

 _'Look behind you!'_

"I usually am." Jade said somberly. She did turn towards Naraku, but if he could have physically gasped, he would have. Her eyes were closed, blood dripping from them like tears. She also had blood dripping from her nose and mouth. Jade continued on her aimless path. Naraku's body stopped its taunting advance and dropped its arms. The legs then picked up their pace, no longer pretending to balance.

 _'This is a dream.'_ Naraku reminded himself. A deep chuckle spilled from his mouth in reply.

"Jade!" his voice called out. Jade stopped moving and turned towards him.

"Naraku?" she asked back.

 _'This isn't real.'_

"You shouldn't be walking around in your condition." Naraku's voice softly scolded.

"I was...I didn't,"

"Shh, it's alright now." he reassured her gently.

 _'I don't speak to her like that.'_

"Will you help me?" Jade asked him, wiping the bloody tears from her face. Her efforts were in vain; her eyes continued to bleed. Naraku's hand rested under her chin, gently tilting her head back.

"Of course." Naraku's voice answered sweetly, but Naraku knew his own tones and that one was bait. "I will gladly put you out of your misery." Naraku's tone shifted from sweet to serious.

"What?" Jade stepped back, but Naraku quickly reached out with his other hand, both wrapping around her throat strongly. He forced her down to her knees, then onto her back….

His eyes snapped open and Naraku was back on the floor of his spare bedroom. Sunlight was spilling into the room through the single window. His breaths were frantic and heavy. He couldn't tell if the trembling in his body was due to him regaining muscle control or from the stress of his dream.

"It was just a drop of," he tried to tell himself, but he had made his decision. Naraku stood up and grabbed the tubes of solution, shoving them into the bottom drawer of his desk and slamming it shut.

 _'When they dispose of the chemical waste from the labs, I'm tossing them with the waste. I'm not equipped to deal with them any longer.'_ he thought angrily. He marched out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Naraku pulled his phone out and his thumb hovered over, "Call," and then over, "Message," on Jade's contact screen before he locked his phone instead.

"It was a dream. I didn't hurt," he cut himself off, remembering he had hurt her. He simply used a different method. "She's fine."

 **000000**

The strain her tangled, brown hair placed on her arms was outrageous. She tried to pick it out, used a stronger shampoo and conditioner, and even brushed her hair in the shower, thinking her hair would be easier to manage while it was soaked. No. Jade grit her teeth and pulled the brush through, but she finally gave up when she realized she was actually out of breath. It made her roll her eyes and snicker at the same time.

"At least I can walk better." Jade whispered to herself. She checked her phone and groaned. There were a few hours to go before her appointment with the specialist the hospital recommended to her. She wanted a morning appointment, but it was either today or wait two more weeks. Jade took one last look at her tangled hair in the mirror

 _'I have time to get it chopped off. I'm not dealing with it anymore.'_ Jade decided. She tilted her head back, examining the bruising around her neck. It looked worse, but the mix of brown and yellow with a greenish tint indicated it was healing. Gently, she dragged her fingers across her neck, shuddering when she remembered her dream from the previous night. She heard his voice, felt his hands, but somehow, it didn't seem like Naraku. He had voiced his impulse to strangle her many times in the past, but he never tried it or even pretended to try it to upset her.

"Just a dream. Not real." she reassured herself, grabbing her phone, keys and walking out of her room. She had gone from walking like a ninety-year-old with two hip replacements to a sixty-year-old with one hip replacement. It was progress to her even though everyone still looked at her the same way; concerned and overly-sympathetic. Jade limped into the living room and saw Kagome organizing papers on the dining table.

"Oh, hey! You're up early." Kagome said with a gentle smile. Jade could sense the worry from the way Kagome's eyebrows slightly furrowed together.

"I think I've slept enough." Jade replied. A small, "mew," sounded from below. Jade looked down, watching Kirara slowly circling in and out of her legs.

"Kirara is happier now that someone has been home with her more." Kagome commented, flipping a stack of papers around.

"I'm glad she's happy and all, but I don't like her smacking my mouth with her paw when I'm sleeping. Or laying on my face and swatting my hair."

"Aw, she's just showing her love."

"She knows I can't reach up and stop her. She's abusing me." Jade said, demonstrating with her hands that she could only bend them up to her shoulders.

"Speaking of abuse, we all missed you in the lab last week." Kagome retorted, flashing Jade a wide-eyed, "save me," expression.

"Um, I don't want to talk about him right now." Jade replied, feeling her voice cut out as her throat tightened in response to the sound of his voice in her head.

"Oh, sorry." Kagome cringed slightly. "Have you talked to anyone about any of this? Professors or classmates?"

"Not in great detail. I solved things with the department, so now I'm just waiting for the okay to go back from a doctor, which is today hopefully. I've already almost caught up with my assignments." Jade explained. She decided to keep her discussion with Sesshomaru a secret. It was going to take a while for her to mull over what he told her, both what happened and why he wasn't upset with her for what she did to him.

"Well, if you need to talk, Sango and I are here."

"I get that, but I still don't remember anything."

"But you're still stressed because you're not making money," Kagome pointed out. "We aren't blind."

"That's normal. Anyone would be stressed in this situation." Jade shrugged. "Besides, both of you have told me you have the bills handled, even though I still have money saved up."

"I don't think you understand what I'm trying to say,"

"Um, if I have bad feelings, talk about them with you guys,"

"Yes. Talk. More talking. You're not talking much and it worries us. That was a scary situation. You could have never woken up."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't have known that. I was having a damn good dream, actually." Jade replied, her dream house appearing in her mind, only to be replaced with the cold, dark, wet place. "Mostly."

"What kind of good dream makes you hate dripping noises?" Kagome asked skeptically, her hands resting on her hips.

"Okay, hear me out," Jade began with a nervous laugh. "That isn't the strangest thing coma patients have developed after waking up."

"So, because other people have had worse, you don't think yours is a big deal? Is that what I'm understanding?"

"No, just that it could have been worse for me and it wasn't, so I'm not upset about it because it didn't happen."

"What about what your professor is claiming that you did? The assault?"

"I have no reason not to believe him and the papers from the hospital agree that my physical injuries weren't severe enough to cause a coma. If something with my health made me snap, then I'm going to find out why so I can stop it from happening again."

"Oh. I guess that's a good way to approach it. Your aunt said that you've never had those symptoms before, though."

"No, but a lot of illnesses can still develop even if you didn't have symptoms before. Mental ones have been known to, uh, manifest in people when they reach their early twenties." Jade explained slowly as she absentmindedly rubbed her chest. "I don't like that it happened, but it did."

 **000000**

"Would you guys be alright with her shadowing your group for this experiment?" Bruce asked three of Jade's classmates. They each glanced over at her, nodding and shrugging collectively.

"Thanks." Jade said to them as Bruce placed a stool beside their table. The wooden stool was a tad taller than she liked, so it required a bit more effort on her part to sit on. Her new group members didn't seem to notice her struggle, though.

"Alright, everyone. I'm going to set you guys free to start your experiment. I'll be in and out of the room dealing with some business, so I asked one of my grad students to assist with questions or issues." Bruce announced, raising his voice over the clatter of glass tools being placed on the tables of the lab.

 _'Oh, no. Not him. Please.'_ Jade looked around the room, but she didn't see any long black hair.

"Hey, can you hold this?" the blonde woman asked. Jade blinked and flinched, but she nodded and held the glass flask with both of her hands. It was at that moment Jade noticed the trembling in her arms and hands and the dull pain growing in her lower back. Her group finished wiping down their table and placed two blue towels on the surface, placing their glass instruments on them. The blonde woman took the flask from Jade and smiled. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Jade replied, looking back at her. She had green eyes, too, though hers were pale; more of a gray with a green tent as opposed to Jade's pure, leafy green ones.

"I'm Jane." she said.

"Oh, I'm Jade."

"That's funny. Our names are almost the same." Jane said with a smile. She glanced at Jade and sighed. "If you need to copy someone's notes for the days you missed, you can copy mine."

"Thanks. I can take pictures of them after class."

"That's smart. I never even thought about that." she replied, staring at Jade with wonder. Jade nodded, but looked towards the door when she spotted movement. Sesshomaru was walking in, adjusting the sleeves on his pristine-white lab coat and Jade exhaled with relief. When his golden eyes found her green ones, Jade smiled and waved at him. He immediately approached her, weaving between the tables and folding his arms behind his back.

"Do you have a question?" he asked her.

"No. I was just waving to say hi." Jade responded in a small voice. Sesshomaru frowned briefly, but he reined his expression back into a calm one.

"Hi." he said back quickly. Jade couldn't help but to snort.

"Your face is looking better." Jade told him, pointing at the fading bruise.

"It might be because I'm wearing makeup to hide it." Sesshomaru told her evenly.

"Oh." Jade looked down, gripping the ends of her oversized lab coat's sleeves.

"No." Sesshomaru ordered. Jade looked back at him, frowning. "It looks better." he said before turning to assist a group that called for his help. Swallowing her guilt, Jade pulled out a notepad and pencil from her pocket. Her arms couldn't handle a normal notebook, so she had to improvise.

"He's cute." Jane chirped. "His poor face, though."

"He's something." Jade retorted, taking another look at Sesshomaru, who seemed like he wanted to be literally anywhere else at the moment. Jane wasn't wrong, though. Jade also found him cute recently. Mostly because he was very socially awkward. Sesshomaru's idea of an interesting conversation was silently listening to the other person and then simply saying...nothing. His eyes spoke for him and they usually said, "You're boring me." He was a bit more talkative with Jade. Instead of nothing, he averaged out at about five words per conversation with her.

 _'He's definitely nicer to be around than Naraku.'_ Jade admitted. She turned back to her group and began scribbling down the weight numbers.

Within minutes, the room was filled with the aroma of ethyl acetate as each group worked to dissolve their benzil samples. Light chatter kept the room from falling silent. Jade tried to focus on the banter of her group, or on Sesshomaru, who was sitting at the front of the room with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. Flipping back to the first page of her notes, Jade attempted to understand what she had written, but the words, which she understood, were not connecting with each other to form a coherent concept. The aches in her body were unbearable. The stool didn't help her case, but Jade also hadn't sat upright for a long period of time since before her hospitalization. It was part of the reason why she hadn't streamed any games recently. The burning pain began in her lower back and slowly crept up her spine, becoming a sharp, deep pain between her shoulder blades. Shifting back and forth, she tried to flex and stretch the pain away, but as soon as she switched sides, the other began to hurt again. Her arms gave up and her hands landed in her lap, plopping the notepad and pencil out of her hands.

"Why?" Jade whispered with a groan, staring at the floor. It was three feet below her, but her muscles screamed three-hundred.

"Oh, I got it," Jane insisted when she heard Jade's irritated sigh. She slid off her stool and picked up the fallen utensils, handing them to Jade, who smiled.

"Thanks."

"Are you sure you're okay? You look sick." Jane pointed out. The other two group members, a man and a woman, looked over at her, too.

"I'm not one-hundred percent, but I'll be okay." Jade said, waving her hand dismissively. She felt the sweat forming on her brow and used her sleeve to wipe it away.

"Well, everything is ready. We just need to wait for this to dissolve." the man stated, leaning over his notebook to finish his notes.

"Do you guys know what I heard the other day?" Jane asked, lowering her voice as she leaned in.

"Uh, no?" the other girl replied.

"One of my friends was heading to his Physics class and he said that a huge fight broke out on the main floor a little over a week ago," Jane revealed, pointing at the ceiling where the main floor sat above.

 _'Oh no, please,'_ Jade's entire body tensed up and she felt the familiar sting of cold fear spreading through her skin.

"Yeah, I heard something similar from my professor. She said she wasn't allowed to give details and that paramedics were called. It must have been a fight to the death or something." the man added, scratching his beard.

"I wonder if our cute lab assistant had anything to do with it. His face is bruised." Jane said softly.

 _'I have to go! I have to go!'_ Jade's eyes searched for Sesshomaru, who had walked across the room to another group. She waited for him to look over at her, but he was too drawn into the other student's lengthy question. _'Is he reciting the entire fucking O-Chem book?'_

"Hey Jade," Jane called out. Jade quickly looked at her, her shoulders shrugging with terror. "You know him, right? Was he involved?"

"Uh," Jade choked out, her head snapping in Sesshomaru's direction once more. This time, he did look at her and his expression grew serious when he saw hers. "I mean, I was, that was, I was sick," Jade stumbled over her words. Part of her wanted to tell the truth, but her instincts screamed at her to run. Sesshomaru was heading towards her now.

"She has bruises, too, and she's been out-" the bearded man cut off when Jade clumsily slid from the stool, but ultimately, she tripped over it and spilled to the floor on her belly. Her eyes screwed shut from the searing pain, and a high-pitched ringing sound filled her ears, but it didn't prevent Jade from hearing all of the stools wailing as they scraped against the floor, alongside gasps and confused chatter. Steadily, Jade pushed herself up, trying to pull her knees beneath her so she could stand, but they refused. Her body was too scared and shocked to move. Two hands gripped her upper arms and held her weight as she bent her legs to prepare to stand.

"Slowly." Sesshomaru told her. Jade glared at the floor, at her feet, and at her chest. Her body shook and she felt faint, but Jade swallowed hard and finally straightened upward, locking her knees in place. Her eyes scanned each classmate's face; concern, confusion, terror, were the majority expressions and one face was hidden behind cupped hands where only her wide eyes stared back at Jade.

"I," Jade's vision blurred and she immediately looked down as her tears dripped onto her chest. "I don't fight,"

"Get back to work." Sesshomaru ordered the class, his tone even and strong. Even his voice was more stable than she was and it drove her mad. "Can you walk?" he asked her in a low voice.

 _'If I could, I would have ran out of here by now,'_ Jade lamented, but she didn't want to respond to him with such bitterness. She settled with shaking her head, "No." Every bit of energy she had was being used to prevent her from sobbing and screaming.

"Did one of you upset her?" Sesshomaru questioned with suspicion. Jade had been fine when he first spoke to her, so he didn't think she would randomly try to run away, especially in her current condition.

"We were," Jane began, shaking her head. "We were talking about the fight that happened upstairs and he was asking about her bruises-"

"She fell down some stairs." Sesshomaru interrupted dryly. Jade let out her first sound. It sounded like a cough and a sneeze. When he saw her shoulders bouncing, he realized she was giggling. She looked back up at him, teary-eyed with her hands cupped around her nose and mouth and her eyebrows knitted together with worry.

"It...hurts," Jade choked out, her voice muffled by her hands.

"Then why are you here?"

"I just want to catch up."

"It's difficult to learn when you start crying because someone looked at you." Sesshomaru scolded her. Wiping her tears, Jade nodded in agreement.

"I'm sorry, guys. I guess I'm not okay." Jade said as she turned back to her group. They each shook their heads and spoke at once, telling her it was fine, and they were sorry, and they would help her catch up when she was feeling better,

"Go home, Jade." Sesshomaru said, stepping to the side. "Take the elevator so you don't fall down anymore stairs." Jade coughed and laughed simultaneously, but she was able to move again, much to her relief.

 **000000**

"Sooooo, what? Are you seriously just going to sit there silently and waste an hour of both of our lives?" the older man asked, spinning his pencil between his fingers. Naraku glanced up from his phone and both of his eyebrows rose.

"I'm reading for my research, so this isn't wasting my time." Naraku replied, looking back down at his phone. He was reading into the connections between the brain, the nervous system, and muscle control limits. He was sure that could answer why Jade had strength and speed that she normally didn't have.

"You do realize that I can report back to your boss about your lack of participation, right?"

"You do realize that is all I need to sue you and the university for every penny you're all worth, right?"

"You have to participate or,"

"No. The agreement I signed specifically stated to attend therapy sessions; not attend and participate. The papers I signed here to be accepted for therapy sessions explained a confidentiality clause that I'm sure you are well aware of. If you say anything to anyone about what I say, unless I am threatening to cause harm to myself or others or you are ordered by a court of law, you are breaking a code of ethics put into place to protect my privacy." Naraku recited. "So, for two hours every week for six weeks, we are going to have quiet time together."

"Why are you so defensive?"

"Cute." Naraku said, staring at his phone. The therapist could toss all the bait he wanted; Naraku wasn't going to bite. He heard the man sigh heavily as he began scratching notes down anyway. Naraku chose to ignore that, too.

 _'It's possible that her mental state was exacerbated by the solution, which severed any inhibitors set in place by the golgi tendon, the spinal cord, and the brain to protect the muscles from overextending. Without those, her muscles can be used at full capacity, but can injure themselves, which explains the tears in muscle and tissue along her arms and chest.'_ Naraku made sure to type it into his phone's notepad to add to his notebook later. It was going to be his last entry in regard to his pink and purple solutions. The therapist scribbled more words down.

"You don't want to make any comments about why you're here?" the therapist asked.

"No." Naraku answered, continuing his typing.

"I'm not with them, okay? I want to help you."

"You're persistent."

"I don't want you to waste this opportunity."

"Well, I do." Naraku retorted. He pulled up an article about plant growth and returned to silence. The therapist sighed heavily. He was an older man of fifty with graying brown hair, thin-rimmed glasses, and he exhibited a caring, father-like persona, which was why Naraku found him to be especially annoying. Any figure of authority automatically drove a nail under his skin simply by existing. Being forced to see this father-therapist was the cherry-topping to Naraku's foul mood.

"Will you at least tell me about your research?"

"Sure. I'm conducting various social experiments to observe and conclude how many times, on average, I'm required to say, "Blow me," before you actually blow me or you realize this is going nowhere and give up."

"I've been doing this longer than you've been alive."

"Doing what? Blowing your clients?"

"How about we have a direct conversation without you deflecting or attempting to provoke me because you don't know how to cope with your feelings?" the therapist shot. Naraku grinned.

"How about you blow me instead?"

"You can't do this forever." the therapist sighed.

 _'Watch me.'_ Naraku dramatically pointed at his crotch with both index fingers while silently mouthing, "Blow me."

Once Naraku was set free from his therapy prison, he walked over to the science building to begin setting up for the experiment for his worthless students. It was usually Jade's task to prepare the lab, but she wasn't there that day and Naraku had no idea if she would ever return. Bruce just laughed at him when he asked about her again the previous day.

 _'Did she transfer to a different lab?'_ he wondered. Shaking his head, he pushed through the setup, banishing any thoughts that had nothing to do with the experiment. He finished quickly since it was going to be a simple experiment and decided to eat before class started.

 _'Why did I buy a salad? I didn't even want salad.'_ Naraku exhaled harshly, but he picked up the fork and began to eat anyway. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he habitually asked for a salad instead of trying the new grilled chicken recently added to the menu. His eyes slowly scanned the empty classroom while he mentally checked off everything he was supposed to set out for the next experiment. It was going to be another long three hours of his life wasted away educating people who didn't wish to be educated. Stabbing his fork into his salad a few times, Naraku cursed under his breath before finally eating whatever stuck to the utensil.

"Oh, you already set stuff up? Neat."

Her voice erased everything in his mind. He almost jumped up, almost smiled, but he caught himself and recited, "Stupid," repeatedly in his mind until the urges went away. Instead, he sighed. "I didn't know you were coming back today. Otherwise, I would have left it for you."

"I wasn't sure I'd make it." Jade replied, fumbling around with the buttons of her lab coat until she gave up and left it open. Exhaling exasperatingly, Jade stared at the floor.

"A message ahead of time would suffice."

"You don't answer me, so why waste my time?" Jade asked with a shrug, still staring at the floor.

"I read them." Naraku admitted. He stood up and walked around the desk to get a better look at her. Her hair was shorter; the ends resting just at her shoulders instead of her chest. The bruising around her neck still looked awful. Jade stared back at him, pouting.

"Thaaaaanks. That makes me feel all better."

"I wasn't trying to make you feel better." he said, tensing up and holding his breath when Jade raised her fists and grit her teeth. Her enraged screams started echoing in his head, but she relaxed her body and Naraku relaxed with her and the memories of her screams dissolved away. The throbbing pressure in his chest, however, remained.

"I know you don't really care, but if there is even a molecule in your body that likes me, even just a little bit, please don't do this to me. I can't take it. Seriously, I might actually die." Jade looked up at him, her expression showing a mixture of her pain, frustration, and desperation, with a glimmer of hope shining in her eyes. Naraku stared back unblinkingly.

 _'Should...I...say something?'_ Naraku was completely lost in the empty abyss of his mind. What was he supposed to do? Say? Was feeling this way normal? It definitely didn't feel normal. His sarcasm switch had been flipped off and he couldn't find a way to flip it back on. The word, "threaten," had lost all meaning to him and was just a jumble of letters now. Those were his default modes! What else could he do?

"O-Okay," Jade said softly, her right hand pressed against her chest. When Naraku saw the tears streaming down her face, he felt like his entire brain had set itself ablaze. Jade was now half-way bent over and her breathing was sharp and erratic.

 _'Is she...Is she going to hit me? Is she going to go all through that again? Is it in her system forever?'_ Naraku looked around the room quickly, wishing an emergency Bruce was folded away in one of the cabinets to help calm her down. All the chemicals and scientific instruments of the department were at his disposal and they were absolutely useless! He was useless!

"I don't...understand! Why do you hate me?" Jade sobbed. Naraku felt like he was punched in the gut. The memory of Jade from his dream surfaced; frightened, injured, crying, asking for his help, and he strangled her despite it all.

 _'If I just kill myself for her, she'll stop and I won't feel anything anymore.'_ Naraku realized his entire body was locked in place. He wanted to move, to run, but nothing worked. It was almost as if his body was forcing him to watch this all unfold again to remind him, to torture him.

"Why didn't you just let me jump if I'm so annoying?"

"I don't ha- you misunderstand me." Naraku finally said, his voice strained as he struggled to control it. "I don't hate you." Almost instantly, the painful tension in his body disappeared. The pain in his chest lessened and he could nearly hear himself think rationally again. Jade was now sitting on the floor, her face buried in her hands as she sniffled.

"Then why are you,"

"I'm an asshole. Me not caring about something doesn't mean I hate it." Naraku shot, but he grit his teeth when the discomfort in his chest began to burn again. "I don't know...how," he stopped. Then, he knelt down so he was at eye-level with her. Jade was still hiding her face, though.

 _'What the fuck do I do? What do I do? Why is this happening to me?'_ Naraku held his own head, trying to prevent it from exploding. Finally, he reached out and planted his hand on top of her head. Jade slowly looked at him from behind her hands, frowning suspiciously.

"Stop crying. I'll do whatever you requested if you stop crying."

"I'm crying because you looked at me like I was stupid for asking it of you," Jade grumbled in reply.

"Yes, yes, I am an awful person. Understood. I'll stop bothering you." Naraku agreed hurriedly.

"You will?"

"I'll try."

"You're doing it right now."

"I'll do it when you stop crying." Naraku insisted. He saw her tear up again and his eyes widened with terror as he flinched and pulled away from her. "Fine! Fine! I'll even buy you lunch for a week, whatever you want, and I won't pester you about what you eat."

"You promise?" Jade asked, finally lowering her hands from her face.

"I promise." he agreed, holding his hand out to her as he stood up. Jade stared at it hesitantly, but she overcame the feeling and grasped his hand, letting him help pull her back to her feet. Jade walked past him towards one of the sinks to wash her face off. Naraku exhaled shakily.

 _'What just happened?'_ he wanted to scream.

After Jade pulled herself together, she greeted students when they began to enter the room. For once, they were all on time. Naraku kept his back to the class. He decided to write the correct answers to the calculation questions from the previous assignment on the board. Jade insisted she would do it since it was her usual task, but Naraku ignored her and began to write anyway. The students were now asking her how she was, what happened, what was wrong with her, and various other intrusive questions.

 _'It isn't their business.'_ Naraku thought bitterly. He tried to tune them out, but it was too loud and constant at that point.

"WeedWolf! What happened? Will you still stream?"

"WeedWolf! Are you still planning on going to KI Regionals?"

"Why are there bruises around your neck?"

 _'I swear, if any of you make her cry, I will drop you in a vat of hydrofluoric acid - alive.'_ Naraku grit his teeth, but he decided to remain silent. Jade could handle herself.

"Your hair is shorter! It looks nice!"

"Were you the psycho running around the building last week?"

The tip of the blue dry-erase marker Naraku was writing with snapped off from the immense pressure he pressed onto it. The marker struck the board sharply, harshly, and it silenced the room. Naraku mentally talked himself out of setting fire to the room before he stepped back and turned around. His eyes scanned the room steadily. Every student was staring at him now; some with wide-eyes, some with confusion, but all were dead-quiet. Naraku finally looked at Jade, who looked like she had seen a ghost. She was staring at the floor with tears welling up in her eyes. Naraku felt the panic beginning to rise in his chest once more.

"Have you all lost your minds?" Naraku asked venomously as he tossed the damaged marker to his right into a metal trashcan, creating yet another loud, sharp noise. "What makes you people think that any of the answers to those questions are your business, especially during class time?" Naraku glanced around again. Now, many faces showed regret and embarrassment. "Last week's lab report is due right now."

"I'll come around and collect them." Jade said, drying her tears with her lab coat sleeve.

"No. Designate one person at your table to pass your papers to and that person can bring them up here and place them on the desk." Naraku insisted, turning back to the board and grabbing another marker from the holder at the base of the board. He heard Jade begin to protest, but the students were already following his command.

 _'Absolutely ridiculous.'_ Naraku shook his head slightly.

He finished writing the calculation answers on the board, turned and crossed his arms. Every student was sitting straight up and staring at him. He had to hold back a smirk. That was how he wished they would be every day; obedient, silent, and fearful.

"I noticed last week that many of you don't know the order of operations, which makes me wonder; are you lazy or are you assuming that because this is chemistry, mathematical rules do not apply here?" Naraku began, now tapping the capped marker against his arm repeatedly.

"You know what, dude? You're an asshole!" one of the young men from the dude's table said aloud. Naraku recognized him as the one who cried upon figuring out who Jade was on the first day.

"I am well aware of that. If I'm not mistaken, you're one of the imbeciles who doesn't know that you solve what's on the inside of the parenthesis first." Naraku retorted. He glanced down when he saw Jade's arm stick in front of him.

"Let's just take a deep breath. You're grumpy from school and he's grumpy from grading papers by himself." Jade insisted with a nervous smile.

"No, no, I'm an asshole. He isn't wrong this time." Naraku chuckled, sticking his arm in front of her and stepping forward. "But I'm a smart asshole. I have no idea how you've made it this far in your schooling career not knowing basic algebra. I suppose that's impressive."

"Fuck you!"

"Heyyyy, let's not do this right now." Jade said aloud, pressing a hand to her chest. Naraku stared at her for a moment, noticing the sweat beading on her face.

"You should thank her. I was about to eviscerate you." Naraku warned, pointing at the frustrated student, who looked away and shook his head vehemently. "Class, start your experiment and read carefully, because I'm not feeling particularly merciful today. If you screw up, you must start over. If you run out of time, you're out of luck. You will not be allowed to borrow another group's data." Naraku announced as he slowly approached the discarded marker on the floor. He placed it back in the holder on the board and walked around to the chair behind the desk. Naraku leaned back and placed his feet on the desk, crossing his legs gracefully.

 _'Heh, that's more like it.'_ he thought when he heard the clinking of glass and quiet murmuring of what to do first. His eyes snapped open when he heard someone softly call Jade's name. He turned his head and watched her walk over to the table where the student Jade referred as, "Rainbow Girl," sat. It was the other girl of the group who had requested Jade's assistance, though. She began to speak, but Jade leaned in on the table, blocking his view.

 _'Was that on purpose?'_ he wondered. But, then again, Jade still seemed physically tired and had been using various surfaces to rest against since she arrived. It could have gone either way. Or both ways. Naraku rested his elbow on the other arm of the L-shaped desk and rested his face against his hand, watching as Jade pointed at the various tools in front of them, seemingly explaining their purpose. Several times she had to stop talking so she could take a breath or wipe a bead of sweat from her brow and each time, Naraku grit his teeth and closed his eyes.

 _'Why is she here if she's still in pain?'_ he frowned. Every time he saw her now, his chest would feel like it was imploding on itself. It was annoying, it was painful - not in the way that he enjoyed - and he was running out of patience. Naraku blinked and tried to physically rub the displeased expression from his face when he saw Jade walking back to him.

"Do I look weird or something? Why are you staring at me so much?" Jade asked him in a hushed voice. "Everyone already thinks you're a dick and a psychopath, so try not to add creep to the list."

"I wasn't staring at you." he replied, his hand still lightly smashing his face.

"Uh-huh."

"I spaced out."

"Whatever you ever say." Jade relented, planting her hands on the surface of the desk and leaning back into them slightly.

"Go sit down. If you drop from a heart attack, I'm not calling for help." Naraku ordered dryly.

"I'm pretty sure someone else would."

"Now." Naraku insisted, sharpening his tone. Jade rolled her eyes, but she walked over to her favorite spin-stool and sat on it quietly. She impatiently tapped an annoyed rhythm on her thighs for a few moments, possibly mimicking her heart beats, and then she yawned deeply and slowly before reaching up to wipe away the tears of fatigue. When she sighed again, her head snapped in his direction and her gaze locked on his. Her face said it all; stop staring at me. Naraku's eyebrows rose.

"What?" he asked accusingly.

"You," Jade paused to take a breath. "You exhaust me."

Jade sat more during the class after Naraku forced her to. She would still help, but she would borrow a seat from a student once she reached the table. The class must have been especially careful, because no one screwed up their experiment once. Naraku began gathering the chemicals as most groups were finishing up with cleaning before leaving. Jade sat at the dudes' table, in the usual spot of the angry idiot, and was explaining something to them before they left the room. Naraku placed all of the chemicals on a cart and turned when Jade walked up to him.

"I have to go." she said. "I'm not...the curfew."

"Go on." Naraku told her, avoiding eye contact as he tightened the caps of the bottles he had collected. She lingered a moment longer, as if she wished to say something, but she must have decided against it because she turned and walked out of the room. Naraku watched her, noticing the limp, the awkward way her torso tried to compensate, and his hands around her bruised throat.

"No," he winced, trying to push the image from his mind. "Jade, wait," Naraku called as he walked to the hallway.

"I can't! I'll get in trouble!" Jade replied urgently. Naraku bounded towards her.

"I'm sorry." Naraku couldn't hold it back. Something in the back of his mind shoved it out before he could approve it.

"F-For what?" she asked, looking at him as if he grew a second head. Naraku paused and observed her for a moment. He drugged her with a substance he knew little about. He almost killed her. He stole blood directly from her vein.

"Your shoulder. I probably tore the muscle, the rotator cuff," Naraku said quickly.

"The cuff is fine." Jade replied softly, now staring at the floor. Her hands began wringing each other. "Plus, this is better than being splattered across the parking lot."

"Is it?"

"No, actually," Jade laughed, but her eyes were shining with more tears. "I hate this."

"You came back too early."

"I can't afford to miss anymore. I'll never catch up if I do." Jade glanced at her phone, turning to walk away. "I have to go. Thanks for the apology. I'm not mad at you, though."

 _'You should be. You should absolutely despise me.'_ Naraku turned around to return the borrowed chemicals to the department's storage room. He began pushing the cart out of the room, arguing with himself about why he couldn't admit what he truly did to her. The law never stopped him before and, usually, he felt so proud and so amused about what he did that he had to openly admit it, just to get a final rise out of the person. It made him feel invincible. But Jade wouldn't react to him.

 _'She would never speak to me again.'_ His legs stopped moving and his hand pressed against his chest when the sensation of a sharp, searing knife pierced his heart.


	18. On the Upswing

**On the Upswing**

Jade carefully placed the lids over both boxes containing the newly-extracted phosphorus samples. She had injected PMA stain into each tube, capped them, and then placed them in boxes with lids to block out the light.

 _'If I followed Naraku's instructions correctly, they should turn blue.'_ Jade sighed. She lifted one box and grunted as she moved it to the safest corner of the room. She did the same with the second box and huffed, rubbing the left side of her chest and both arms. It had been over two weeks since the violent incident, but her muscles were healing great, despite the, "strange anomalies," that seemed to be aiding her injured muscles. Jade felt that, "strange anomalies," was a bit redundant, but her doctor said that it was appropriate because not only did they not know why tiny crystals were seemingly stitching the torn muscles together or how they formed in the first place, but they also seemed to be speeding up the healing process itself. The smaller tears were almost completely healed within two weeks instead of a month, and the larger tear along her left shoulder and pectoral muscle would probably be healed within the month instead of the original prediction of two to three months.

 _'No one has answers, not even the specialists.'_ Jade frowned. She knew she should be happy with her quick recovery, but she couldn't help but to feel that the crystals were a sign of something ominous. The lab door opened and pulled Jade from her thoughts.

"Oh, good! You're here." Bruce chirped, leaving the lab door open as he walked towards her. Jade noticed Bruce had been leaving the door open whenever he was with her anywhere lately. She understood why he did it, but she couldn't help but to feel distrusted.

"Yep." she finally said, sighing with a smile.

"What have you been up to?" he asked, pointing at the used beakers and pipette.

"I put PMA stain into the extractions. Now I'm waiting."

"Goddamn him. I told him not to involve you in this again." Bruce stated seriously, shaking his head.

"No, no, I wanted to! This was where I left off. I want to say I participated in at least one extraction all the way through." Jade insisted quickly, waving her hands. Bruce looked back at her and exhaled dramatically, but he nodded his head.

"Understandable." Bruce agreed. He held up a thick white binder filled with at least a thousand pages from what Jade could estimate. "Do you know where he is, by any chance?"

"He said he was going to go taunt the crazy people who are on campus today."

"The religious nuts who scream, "slut," and, "fag," at students?"

"Yep."

"Why doesn't that shock me?"

"Because he's Naraku."

"Indeed. Well, do you mind delivering this to him? It's important." Bruce asked, holding the binder out to her. Suddenly, he blinked and quickly pulled the binder against his chest. "I mean, can you? Are you able to-"

"I can walk." Jade interrupted teasingly. She held her hands out and Bruce gave her the binder gently.

"I have to be careful with you or else your aunt is going to hide under my bed and slit my throat for being a liar." Bruce told her with a laugh, but Jade heard the honesty in his tone.

"She's harmless. She just barks a lot." Jade told him as she walked past him to find her provocative mentor.

"Yeah, well, I'm not taking any chances." Bruce retorted as he followed her out, closing the door behind him.

She giggled at that response as she strode down the hallway. It felt so good to finally be able to walk at a normal pace. The only health issue still bothering her was her heart. Its progress was slower than the rest of her body and she hoped that it would eventually feel normal again. Jade spotted two women dressed professionally in light tan and gray suits, chatting among themselves. The woman in gray locked gazes with Jade, and the other woman in tan joined in. Jade nodded to them while biting her lips together nervously. Their paces quickened and both women quickly looked away. Jade turned to exit the east side of the building.

 _'Is there anyone in the building who hasn't heard what happened?'_ Jade wondered irritably. She took a deep breath and exhaled, repeating to herself that there was nothing she could do about it.

"Oh, sorry," Jade said when she almost ran into a girl. She saw the neon blues, pinks, greens, and oranges on her clothes and in her hair and realized it was Sara the Rainbow Girl.

"It's alright." Sara replied softly. "Hey, um, I do have a question,"

"I can try to answer it." Jade responded. Sara giggled back and looked down, opening her mouth to speak, but then she stopped and a worried look splashed across her face.

"I-I don't think I did well on that last lab. Do you know if I did or not?" Sara blurted out quickly.

"Uuuuh," Jade stalled, looking up as she wracked her brain. The last lab was when Naraku and one of the enraged students from the dudes' table decided to start Fight Club in the middle of class and when Naraku made everyone bring their reports to his desk. She had to leave because of the curfew. She met Naraku the next day in the library cafe to grade the labs and they finished up the following day. She remembered grading Kagome's lab because she always pulled it from the stack when Naraku wasn't paying attention. She graded two of the dudes' papers from her fan table. She graded the three nursing majors' papers. "I don't think I graded yours, so I don't know. Naraku might."

"I can ask him, then. Do you know where he is?"

"I'm on my way to him right now, but you don't want to talk to him about it." Jade insisted with a laugh. "He'll tell you in specific detail how awful you did, even if you did fine."

"It's okay! It might be funny." Sara insisted with a wide smile. Jade's eyebrows almost flew to the moon.

"Ooooookay, follow me then," Jade sang back uncertainly. Sara nodded and kept pace with Jade as they stepped onto the main brick sidewalk that ran through the middle of campus from the East to the West side. Jade already saw the large gathering of students of various heights, weights, and skin tones. They all seemed to be agitated, too. She heard loud screams of, "Fuck you!" echoing off the surrounding buildings.

"Is this normal?" Sara asked, holding the straps of her backpack and pointing at the crowd.

"It happens once a semester. Crazy religious people shout insults at students, students who are better at insults and arguments shout back, religious people get upset and try to sue the university for harassment, the university posts their angry letters in our school newspaper, and we all laugh about it."

"Oh." Sara said. "Why does the university allow them on campus?"

"I don't know. Some sick sense of humor, I guess." Jade replied. A gentle breeze swept through, bouncing off different buildings and with it, a familiar, heavy scent.

 _'That...was a very strong gust of weed.'_ Jade sniffed again just to be entirely sure and she was.

"Ugh, what's that god-awful smell?" Sara complained, now holding her sleeved arm under her nostrils. Jade turned her head slowly to look at her.

 _'You've lived a sheltered life, haven't you?'_ Jade guessed.

"That is weed." Jade answered aloud, quickly walking towards the crowd. The closer she approached, the better she could see the crowd. It wasn't a random gathering; it was a purposeful circle surrounding the religious visitors.

"You're all sinners! And God hates you for it!" the main minister screamed while coughing. His wife was also coughing while shouting, "Sluts," at two girls making out in front of her.

"This is really weird." Sara murmured uncertainly.

"I fucking knew it," Jade said with a smile. Off to the side, dressed in a silky, dark red shirt, black pants and shoes, with matching red devil horns on his head, red trident in his hand, and his black sunglasses, was Naraku. The best part for Jade was the sign he had next him, stuck into the ground with wire.

 ** _'Convert to Satanism - Get a free cigarette'_** it read. It even had a pentagram painted in red and with drips to appear as blood.

"Busy volunteering?" Jade asked as she approached Naraku.

"I am." Naraku replied with a wide grin. With a slow wave of his hand, he showcased himself, his sign, and the crowd of smokers, who were now blowing and exhaling a mix of tobacco and pot smoke at the extremist minister and his wife. Jade had to pause and take in the sight of him. He was so proud that he almost looked innocent. Almost. "Are you converting?" Naraku asked, holding out a pack of cigarettes.

"Are you already high? Since when do you openly do this shit?" Jade asked back.

"I've no idea what you're talking about."

"Naraku,"

"No, seriously, I've no idea." he insisted, still smiling. "These are cigarettes." Jade slipped one out with her thumb and index finger and smelled it. Sure enough, it was tobacco.

"Then, why do I smell,"

"Because I don't openly do that shit." Naraku retorted slyly. "I have my ways." Jade stared back for a minute, fighting away her smile, but the laughter was building too much pressure in her sore chest, so she had to let it out.

"So what kind of volunteer work is this?" Jade asked, wiping away a few tears and pointing at the crowd of students who were successfully smoking out the angry campus visitors.

"I am protesting religious bullies."

"By bullying them?" Jade giggled.

"Believe it or not, the students circled around them and started blowing smoke at them without me suggesting it."

"I don't believe you." Jade replied, sticking the cigarette back in the box and turning to see if Sara was still behind her. She was, though she was standing a bit farther away to avoid the smoke. "She wants to know if she did okay on the reports we just graded."

Naraku looked over at Sara, who waved at him with a smile. Naraku arched an eyebrow and looked down at Jade, who seemed to be sharing his surprise.

"I don't know her name." Naraku finally said.

"It's-"

"It's Sara!" the girl announced, interrupting Jade and nearly jumping towards Naraku, who took a small step back.

"If I tell you that you passed, will you go away?" Naraku asked with annoyance.

"Hahahaha, you're so funny!" Sara said loudly. Naraku quickly looked at Jade, who looked back at him and giggled awkwardly.

"You know, I think I see someone I know over there." Jade stated quickly while pointing behind Naraku. "Be right back,"

"N-No, don't leave," Naraku immediately stopped talking. He turned back to Sara, who was still smiling and waiting for him to say something. "Cigarette?"

"Those cause cancer, silly."

"So you want the whole pack? Go for it." Naraku continued, holding it out to her. To his surprise, she actually took it and gasped.

"Really? This couldn't have been cheap." Sara said with wide, uncertain eyes.

"I would pay any amount for you to go away."

"Hahaha, anything?"

"Any amount." Naraku repeated sternly.

"How aboooooout," Sara paused, tapping her chin as she looked up thoughtfully. "You give me an amount that adds up to your phone number?"

"Fine. You can have my phone number." Naraku relented, pulling his pen from his pocket. "Your hand,"

"Okay!" she agreed, holding her hand out with her palm facing up. He began writing down the phone number of Jade's other work place, The Pizza Bar.

"There. You received a B on the last report." Naraku said, placing his pen back into his pocket. "Now get lost."

"Thank you!" Sara called to him as she ran away. As she ran, she let her arms dangle behind her as she ran head first. Naraku's face twisted with pure confusion as he tilted his head. He lightened his expression when he heard Jade's muffled giggling as she walked back towards him.

"Bruh," Jade began, taking a quick drink of soda. "That was really hard to watch."

"Why did you bring her to me?" Naraku snapped in a hushed voice. "She was hitting on me!"

"Yes the fuck she was." Jade agreed confidently as she took another drink. Naraku blinked and tapped her bottle of soda heatedly.

"I thought you said you were going to talk to someone you recognized."

"Yeah. The soda machine." she retorted. "That was so hot and heavy that my mouth was dry."

"I...will," Naraku inhaled deeply and then exhaled loudly, leaning away from her and crossing his arms.

"For real, though, I had no idea she was going to do that. I would have messaged you, but I was already on my way here." Jade explained, holding up the binder she had tucked under her right arm.

"From Bruce?" Naraku asked.

"Yep."

"Finally." he sighed with relief. He was actually shocked at the amount of information Bruce was able to get a hold of about the lake. Naraku then looked back at Jade. "Did you finish staining?"

"Yes. They are in the boxes now."

"Explain the process to me."

"I injected this shit into that shit and put them inside boxes."

"No. Chemically, what is happening?"

"Uh, well, the PMA stain,"

"Stop. What does PMA stand for?"

"You know I can't say it, so get off of it." Jade replied bitterly as she looked away.

"Sound it out slowly. Imagine how I felt when I was learning English." Naraku ordered.

"Phosphormoly...shit. There isn't an R. Phospho...moly,"

"It's just phosphorous and molybdenum shortened and combined." Naraku explained. He snorted when she repeated him, using a mocking, goofy tone.

"Dude, even the Slavic languages spit on this word,"

"One more time,"

"Phospho...molybdic acid. Phosphomolybdic acid. There. I said it."

"You said it very good." Naraku told her in a fake proud tone. He patted her shoulder and cleared his throat. "So, what is it doing?"

"The PMA," Jade began forcefully in protest to saying the entire name of the stain. "Is being reduced to molybdenum blue."

"How so? Speak chemistry to me."

"I...I know the intensity of the blue color relies on the amount of double-bonds in the product. I don't know why."

"That will suffice for now. Has Bruce not discussed PMA or other stains in his class yet?"

"I don't know. I'm still behind."

"Alright. I will meet you in the lab after your class, then." Naraku said. Jade nodded and walked away briskly. She wasn't in a hurry; it just felt nice to move fast again.

 **000000**

"Don't forget! Wednesday is our nude model session! So try to get here and set up a little early if you're a bit slower!" the professor called out, raising his voice above the sounds of scraping chairs and clanking utensils.

"I think he's talking to you, Jade." Sango said in a low voice. Jade pouted at her.

"Thanks. I never would've guessed."

"Oh Jade, come on,"

"I know, I know. It's just that if anyone is aware of it, it's me. Sooooo yeah." Jade responded dryly.

"But you're getting better and that's all that matters." Sango insisted, waiting for Jade to finish packing her bag.

"Not really."

"What do you mean?"

"People in the science building look at me weird."

"Weird how?"

"I don't know. Earlier, I was carrying a binder to Naraku,"

"Hmph." Sango huffed with disgust as she crossed her arms.

"I know, I know! Anyway, I was walking down the hallway and these two ladies, either professors or administration, were talking to each other and then one saw me and then the other saw me and when I got closer they looked away and walked off a little faster." Jade explained.

"Oh,"

"And Bruce! Whenever he finds me, he leaves the door of whatever room we're in open. He's never done that before."

"Well, I can't say I blame him if what he said is true." Sango said, hearing Jade sigh with defeat. "I don't blame you either! It's just a complicated situation. I don't think he means anything by it. He's probably still shaken up."

"Yeah, you're right." Jade agreed solemnly. She remembered that dripping noises still gave her chills. Although she didn't freeze up with terror anymore, she was still shaken up, too.

"Do you want to grab lunch?" Sango asked as she descended the stairs quickly. She slowed down when she remembered Jade wasn't able to keep up.

"I can't. I'm meeting Naraku to finish up this extraction stuff." Jade replied.

"The same shit you were doing when this all happened?" Sango asked heatedly. "Did he force you into it?"

"He didn't force me. This is the portion I missed out on." Jade answered with a huff. "And for the record, Naraku has been very, uh, understanding."

"What? He only makes you cry once a day instead of five?"

"Noooo. He doesn't mess with me at all. He gets mouthy and so do I, but he doesn't push it." Jade had to rest for a moment on a step before continuing her descent. "He has been buying my lunches this week. He apologized to me for my shoulder last week."

"Really?" Sango asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. Jade nodded. "Was he sincere?"

"Yeah. I haven't known him as long as some other people, and they all have said that he is never remorseful, but last week, he seemed upset. He would never say it if he didn't mean it."

"That's good. Seriously. I'm glad that he drew the line somewhere and that he feels something. He owes you more apologies, but that's a start." Sango responded.

"Oh, I'll never receive an apology for any of those things. I'm still shocked about this one, but I'm taking it with no complaints." Jade panted as she stopped moving again.

"Maybe we should take the elevator next time," Sango stated in a small voice.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm not quite ready for stairs, I guess."

Sango held one of the science building doors open for Jade and walked beside her as the turned towards the laboratory. Jade was waiting for Sango's usual, "I don't like this; let me go with you," speech, but Sango was busy replying to a text on her phone. She then exhaled heavily and dropped her arms to her side.

"It's going to be rough day at work. We have an emergency surgery beginning right when I get there." Sango stated evenly.

"Uh oh. What happened?"

"Someone's dog swallowed a rock and it's too big to pass or throw up, so once he's stabilized, we're going in."

"Do they actually let you do some of the cutting?"

"Not with serious matters like this. I'm usually there to clean and set up the equipment, monitor vitals, maybe hold something open for them while they cut," Sango listed off as she held up a finger for each duty.

"Do you guys ever get guinea pigs?" Jade asked, suddenly thinking of Naraku's pig and realizing she hadn't seen him for a while.

"Occasionally. Why? Do you want one?"

"No."

"Good answer. You want at least two. Guinea pigs need a friend." Sango said with a wide smile, holding two fingers up.

"Really?" Jade asked, stopping at the lab door.

"Yes. Well, I'll probably be a little late tonight."

"Okay." Jade replied. Both women flinched when the door swung open quickly. They stepped aside as Naraku, no longer wearing his devil horns or wielding his trident, pulled a cart behind him into the hallway. Jade recognized the two boxes sitting on the top shelf and his shoulder bag sitting on the bottom shelf.

"Good afternoon, Jade, Feminazi," Naraku said gently, as if he truly meant to be courteous.

"Jade, I'm going to throttle him," Sango warned, pointing at the tall man threateningly. Naraku playfully bit at her finger and Sango's lightning fast reflexes pulled her hand away from him. She wanted to swing at him, but Jade rested her hand on her angered friend's shoulder.

"Hey Naraku, Sango said that guinea pigs need another guinea pig to be happy." Jade said quickly.

"Is she an expert?" Naraku asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow as he looked at Sango.

"I probably know more than you." Sango shot back, resting her hands on her hips.

"Oh?"

"I'm a training vet technician."

"Riveting." Naraku responded without emotion. "I'm not getting another guinea pig, Jade."

"You shoooooould!" Jade insisted with a smile. Now he was staring at her soullessly.

"I was already aware that guinea pigs should have at least one other living with them. Obtaining another requires me to care."

"And he's an animal abuser, too. Charming." Sango griped.

"Too? What else am I?" Naraku asked curiously. "Please, go on. I love hearing about myself." Sango glared at him, but she turned to Jade and sighed.

"You give this man too much credit." Sango said.

"He takes good care of his guinea pig. I've met it a few times. He's just squeezing whatever reactions he can get out of you." Jade replied calmly. She felt Naraku's arm snake around her shoulders and pull her against his body powerfully.

"No, she's right, Jade. You are far too kind to me." Naraku said with a smirk. He could almost see the rage boiling just beneath Sango's skin.

"Um," Jade began slowly. "What are you doing?"

Naraku raised his other arm and cupped her entire face with his hand. "Touching you without your permission."

"Sango, just ignore him." Jade instructed softly, pulling on Naraku's hand with both of hers. His hand didn't budge. She was positive that even if she was one-hundred percent healed, she still wouldn't have the strength to move it.

"I'm...speechless." Sango admitted, rubbing her forehead, signaling an oncoming headache.

"Aw, that's no fun." Naraku cooed with disappointment. "Come on, say something threatening,"

"Hey, I thought you promised you wouldn't annoy me," Jade said, trying in vain to peel his hand from her face once more and hoping that would amuse him enough to back off.

"I'm not. I'm annoying her."

"Which is annoying me. Stop it." Jade bit. His hand lifted from her face and he let her go, walking back to the cart and gripping the handles.

"We have work to do." Naraku reminded her. Jade nodded and looked back at Sango, who was glaring at Naraku with her arms crossed.

"Don't worry. He's just," Jade began.

"You know, you keep telling me that, but then I find out later that I should be." Sango interrupted calmly. "I'm not very happy with you, either." Sango spun on her heel and briskly walked away. Jade had opened her mouth to reply, but she had nothing to say. Her gaze lowered to the floor.

"Why is she upset with you? You didn't do anything." Naraku pointed out carefully, unsure of what had just transpired in front of him.

"I think that's why; I did nothing." Jade murmured, allowing Naraku to take the lead.

Naraku led Jade to another room that was at the end of the building and facing out towards the small parking lot. He unlocked the door with one of the many keys he held on his keyring and reached inside the room and flicked on the lights. Jade followed behind the cart and turned to close the door.

"Leave it open." Naraku ordered, standing in front of a large, white and gray machine.

 _'This fucker right here,'_ Jade wanted to say, but she swallowed the urge to speak and removed her backpack from her shoulders instead.

"This obnoxiously slow machine is a spectrophotometer." Naraku stated, lightly patting the top of the machine. Jade approached it and Naraku stepped aside. It looked like a large printer with no slots to insert and receive paper and it had a little screen in the middle and various buttons below it.

"Cool." Jade replied. Naraku pointed to the little black bottle hanging by a thin, flexible tube.

"That little straw sucks up the amount of whatever sample, the machine then shines light on the liquid and then deposits it in the disposal box behind it."

"Okay."

"So, just with that information alone, what exactly does it do for us?"

"It allows us to set a standard to compare the amount of reflected wavelengths given by each single sample. Then it gives us the individual values of each sample and we can then insert those values into whatever program to make graphs so we can look like we know what we're doing." Jade explained with a shrug at the end of her final sentence.

"Good. That is the scientific way; make it appear that you know what you're doing."

"Yeah, but you actually know what you're doing."

"Of course I do." Naraku responded, flashing her an attractive grin. "I'm a genius."

 _'Yeah, I know.'_ Jade lamented silently. She still couldn't shake off what Sango said to her. _'What does she want me to do? Kick him in the nuts? How would that help anyone?'_

"Do you want to write down the values first or operate the spectro first? I figured we would switch off halfway." he asked.

"I'll operate it first. I need to learn how to do it."

"I already set the standard."

"Dude, really? Tell me next time!" Jade whined.

"You were spaced out. That's on you." Naraku retorted stiffly. He pulled up a chair to the machine and then found another for himself.

"Do I need distilled water to clean out the straw between each sample?" Jade asked.

"Oh, yes." Naraku walked over to the single sink and turned the third knob for the distilled water, filling up one of the beakers sitting on the shelf. Jade took it and thanked him. "You're welcome." he said, sitting back down and grabbing his notebook and pen.

 _'He replied?'_ Jade was shocked, but she withheld making any facial expressions.

"It will sip twice and process, which is why it takes a while."

"I'll take anything over the extractions."

"Indeed." Naraku chuckled, crossing one leg over the other, doodling at the top of his page while waiting for Jade to repeat the numbers.

The sipping and waiting process between samples was so slow that Jade was almost ready to eat her words about the extractions being agonizing. She would glance over at Naraku every now and then, trying to read him, but he looked content, concentrated; the way he usually looked when his mind was wrapped around science. He didn't speak, even to tease her. He would simply make, "Hm," noises, as if spotting something interesting.

 _'He must be from a different planet or something. They're just numbers, but he's looking at them like they're some kind of modern art pieces. It would also explain him...all of him.'_ Jade thought humorously. She uncapped the next sample and waited for the machine to finish rinsing. Jade felt her phone vibrate and reached in her pocket while the machine sipped the sample she was holding.

 ** _'Are you okay? He hasn't done anything, right?'_** Sango's text read. Jade rolled her eyes, but she immediately scolded herself. Sango was worried, had every right to be, and was just making sure she was fine. Jade read off the number from the screen, glanced at Naraku to make sure he was writing it down, and then ordered the machine to rinse again.

 ** _'I'm fine. He has been quiet the whole time. He likes silence with his science.'_** Jade texted back.

"Is she making sure you're still alive?" Naraku asked slyly, keeping his eyes glued to his notebook.

"Yeah."

"She seems to really care for you. Is she a lesbian?"

"No. She's just super loyal and protective, especially after the whole coma thing."

"Ah, I see." Naraku said. "You're feeling better, I assume? Physically?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm still having trouble, but everything seems to be coming along." Jade huffed. "Somehow."

"Somehow?" he repeated curiously, scribbling down the next value she read off.

"There are weird things showing up on my scans and x-rays around the tears in my muscles."

"Inflammation? Infection? Tissue healing incorrectly?" Naraku listed off.

"No," Jade's voice was barely over a whisper. "They're running multiple tests on me because there are crystals mending the tears together."

"Crystals?" Now he was staring at her. He kept his expression calm, but he was twisting and shouting on the inside. Why were crystals forming around her wounds?

"They thought it could be a sign of cancer, a sign of poisoning, stroke, but all of those cases form elongated, branching crystals. Mine are pointed, like spear tips, and they're coming together like a zipper."

"I see."

"It's weird because muscle tears take weeks, months to heal. Mine are only taking a few weeks to a month." Jade's eyes met Naraku's. "Have you ever heard of anything like that?"

"Me?" Naraku pointed at his chest. He was caught off guard by the, "faster healing," statement.

"Yeah. You're smart."

"I know of the cancer, poison, and stroke cases, and even psychosis,"

"Psychosis? You mean like mine?" she asked quickly, leaning forward. Naraku noted the look of hope on her face. She was desperate for an answer to her crystal mystery, but he couldn't tell her.

"Yes, but the crystals form in the nervous system if it's psychosis. With poison, they form in the kidneys. The stroke crystals are deposited in the blood vessels. Cancer can vary." he explained, watching the hopeful expression morph into a saddened one.

"So, it could be cancer?"

"I don't think it is."

"I mean, they're healing me, but I don't have a good feeling about them." Jade explained, scratching her head nervously.

"Are there any plans to examine them via biopsy?" Naraku quizzed.

"No."

"Why not?" Naraku blinked. He would have cut her open the second he learned about them.

"They're afraid to." Jade answered in a small voice. "I'm afraid, too." Naraku refrained from rolling his eyes.

"They could possibly use the simpler rotator cuff procedure. They could make two small incisions and use small tools to go inside instead of cutting you all the way open. It's an outpatient procedure and seeing as it would be a biopsy, your recovery time would only take a week or two."

"Yeah, they could." Jade said with a smile. "Naraku, what's it like knowing so much?"

"My knowledge means nothing when people don't listen me. It's annoying most of the time."

"I listen to you."

 _'I know.'_ Naraku remained silent. His gaze rested on his notebook.

 **000000**

"Shit." Jade hissed quietly, leaning back in her chair. She had started practicing matches with other high-leveled KI players and her recent matches looked like she lost a year of experience within two weeks. Inhaling through her nose deeply, she hit a button to search for another opponent around her skill level based off her rank. The game found an opponent for her and she dove into it. Her mad-scientist werewolf was trying his damnedest, but Jade's arms were becoming weighted with fatigue, slowing down her button inputs. With a final, grievous howl, Sabrewulf collapsed and the match ended. "Shit." Jade repeated, backing out to the main screen.

 _'I'm getting bodied. I won't even make it through Regional pools, let alone World Cup pools.'_ Jade lamented, moving her arcade stick from her lap to her desk.

"I should just give up, I guess." she whispered, turning her console and computer off. Her phone's blue notification light was blinking, so she checked it. It seemed some of her fans saw she was online and were asking if she was going to stream. She replied, "No," to each of them and crawled onto her bed. Jade's eyelids weighed a ton, so they closed without a fight.

A loud scratching noise echoed into her room. Jade's eyes snapped open stared and stared at the door, realizing her room had become darker due to the sunset. She heard Kirara's frustrated mews and exhaled with relief. The cat must have sensed Jade's fatigue, which was Kirara's cue to find Jade and mess with her while she tried to rest. When the scratching became frantic, Jade groaned.

"Go away, Kirara." Jade called out. The cat went silent. Then, a black paw attached to a tan leg snaked under the open area at the bottom of Jade's door. Needle-sharp laws gripped the carpet, pulling threads apart as the cat pulled her paw back to herself. Her other paw shot under the door and wiggled sideways, almost as if waving at Jade, who was muffling her giggles into her pillow.

"I'm still not letting you in." Jade insisted. Kirara yowled pathetically for a few more minutes before laying against the door in defeat. Jade sighed and closed her eyes again, only for them to open again when she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket.

"Oh," Jade choked after reading the first line. She sat up quickly, as if it would help her comprehend the message better.

 ** _'Hey Jade, here within a day or two, a bunch of money is going to drop into your bank account. Me and the boys, and a few others from GA and Rekt Box, held donation streams when you were in the hospital. We feared the worse and planned on giving the money to your family, but we've all agreed to give it to you for bills and medical stuff since you can't deliver or stream. Also, the other day, I posted a video admitting to asking you to throw the competition for me and apologizing for it. My leadership of The Pack is pending, so you might have a few branch leaders contacting you soon. I still want to apologize to your face, though, whenever you're feeling up to it.'_** Koga's message read. Jade typed up several different responses, only to delete them because she felt they weren't conveying the amount joy and relief she was feeling.

 ** _'Dude, thanks so much. Please tell the others I said thanks, too. I will make a response video and hopefully I can sway the branch leaders to keep you. Water under the bridge.'_** Jade replied, smiling wide.

 _'I can pay bills! I'll have to tell Mama and Auntie when the money hits my account.'_ Jade thought, now bouncing in place. It was the happiest she had felt since before her coma. Her body felt light as a cloud, though she knew better than to try her luck by jumping around. Instead, she stood and opened her door, scooping up the rejected Kirara and holding the cat in front of her.

"I can pay bills! Maybe I can buy you a new toy!" Jade announced excitedly. Kirara's reply was a tail twitch and a scowl. Apparently, she was angry with Jade for not responding to her earlier. Jade placed her down, but Kirara remained by Jade's side. Scurrying into the kitchen, Jade opened the fridge and leaned in, grabbing a bottle of beer. She popped the cap against the counter and took two huge gulps. Jade heard two car doors slam shut and froze.

 _'Shit. Kagome and Sango.'_ Jade rolled her eyes, placing the bottle opening to her lips and draining the liquid steadily. She trashed the bottle and marched back to her room hurriedly, unsure if she wanted to speak to them or not. Although she was more leery of Sango, Jade didn't have much faith in Kagome, either, because she would most likely tell Sango what was said. The door opened and Kagome and Sango's voices echoed through the apartment.

"We don't know that, Sango. Just...oh! Hey Jade!" Kagome waved to Jade, who leaned out of her doorway to wave to them. Sango looked down and scooped up Kirara instead, baby-talking to the cat loudly. Jade lowered her hand and huffed.

 _'Really? We're doing this because I don't want to fight Naraku?'_ Jade thought bitterly, walking back to her bed.

"Sango! Just go!" Kagome hissed. Jade looked up and saw Sango being pushed towards her door.

"Kagome, I,"

"We can't live like this! I won't allow it!" Kagome interrupted her strongly. Sango exhaled loudly, but looked over at Jade, who was waiting for anything to happen.

"Jade, can we talk?" Sango asked abruptly after Kagome jabbed her in the side with her elbow.

 _'Why? You still won't understand.'_ Jade wanted to say, but she nodded silently instead. Sango stepped inside, but leaned back against the open door.

"Look, I was frustrated earlier and you were right; I was letting him get under my skin." Sango stated.

"Okay." Jade shrugged, keeping her gaze aimed at the floor.

"I realize now that you did make him stop when you saw that I wasn't going to."

"I didn't make him; he promised me he wouldn't do that stuff if it upsets me." Jade corrected. "He chose to stop."

"I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing that."

"Well, he defended her against the class last week and he didn't make one rude comment to her." Kagome added. "Don't forget that he watched Jade do what she did, too, and even after she smashed his car, he didn't kill her."

"I know." Sango murmured irritably.

"If it wasn't for Naraku, she would have jumped."

"I get it! But it doesn't explain Jade's permissiveness before all of that." Sango argued. Kagome sighed, her gaze following Sango's over to Jade, signaling her agreement with Sango's statement.

"Naraku is insanely smart. I like learning from him. He's also funny and completely in denial about how desperate for attention he is." Jade stated with a shrug. "Yeah, he irritates me and there have been times that I didn't want to work with him, but I did it anyway and I'll continue to."

"Why?" Sango pressed.

"I signed a contract; he gives me money and I work with him."

"Contract or not, he still hurts you." Kagome insisted.

"He hasn't been violent with me, even when I was attacking him."

"But he still treats you badly!" Sango insisted heatedly. Jade quickly stood from her bed, her hands balled into fists.

"I've done things to him, too! I've tempted him over and over and I enjoyed it!" Jade snapped. "The lab assistant job, the TA job, and assisting Naraku are my main sources of income now! I can't deliver! I can't stand for long periods of time! I can't even sit up or play games for streams! I need something!"

"Making money isn't more important than your safety or your mental well-being, Jade! Have you ever stopped to think that maybe dealing with Naraku is what made you flip in the first place?" Sango pointed out heatedly.

"My lab job and working with Naraku are half of my credit hours this semester. I don't think Naraku made crystals grow on my muscle tears, Sango. I'm convinced there is something else going on."

"You know what? Fine. Do what you want with him." Sango bit, shaking her head. "Maybe that coma did mess with your head. He's probably loving it."

Jade saw red, but she held herself still and squeezed her eyes shut. Her nails dug into her palms! Her teeth felt like they were about to shatter against one another! Her body shivered! It all felt familiar. Far too familiar...

 _'Stop, stop, stop, stop...inhale,'_ Jade coached herself, breathing in through her nose. She held the breath until her skin no longer felt hot. Exhaling through her mouth, Jade opened her eyes. She almost fell over as her energy left her, but she locked her knees and remained standing. Sango reached out to her and stepped forward.

"Are you-"

"Get out." Jade ordered coldly.

"Jade, you're," Kagome began, but Jade held her hand up to stop her.

"Get. Out." Jade repeated calmly, but sternly. Slowly, Sango and Kagome turned and walked away. Jade shut her door and locked it. She felt an itch under her nose, so she scratched it, gasping when she saw the dark blood smeared on her finger.

 **000000**

 _'Her wounds have crystals stitching them together; what is going on?'_ Naraku stared at the tubes of pink and purple liquid; one in each hand. Nothing made sense. The solution made with his blood sent Jade into a blind, bloody rage and eventually, a coma. She spit up a purple crystal, which then turned pink when mixed with her blood. Now she had crystals healing her? _'I can't get rid of them. Not now. They're the keys to my success. I know it.'_

"I can't use her again." Naraku whispered. Jade was his assistant; he needed her to be healthy and alert. That was a mistake he didn't intend to make again despite it giving him more clues to work with. He carried the tubes and his notebook into his living room and placed them on the table. Clicking his tongue, Naraku approached his guinea pig's cage. The gray rodent leapt into his hands excitedly and crawled up to snuggle against his neck. "I know, I haven't given you much attention lately." Naraku said in a low voice, stroking the guinea pig's back. He sat down on his couch and placed the pig on the opposite cushion.

First, Naraku pulled the cork from the purple solution and held it close to the pig's face. As Naraku expected, the guinea pig began grinding its teeth and squealing aggressively. Naraku plugged the tube and grabbed the pink one, waiting a moment for the guinea pig to calm itself. He did the same with the pink liquid. This time, the guinea pig began purring while slowly waving his butt side to side. Naraku slowly pulled the tube closer to himself. The guinea pig followed, still purring and waving his butt. Suddenly, the guinea pig began squeaking loudly, his little gray ears twitching from his own high-pitched squeaks. Then, he began turning in a circular motion, a trick Naraku had taught him months ago.

 _'He thinks it's food or a female. Either way, it's odd.'_ Naraku corked the tube back up and quickly walked to his kitchen to grab a leaf of romaine lettuce to satisfy his little pig's belly. The pig accepted the lettuce happily; the otherwise quiet living room was filled with tiny munching noises. Naraku joined in with scribbling noises as he wrote what had transpired into his notebook. His eye caught the phrase, "I strangled her," from his entry about the dream he had after ingesting the pink solution and shivered.

After finishing his notes and after the guinea pig finished his snack, Naraku stretched out on his couch and turned his TV on. The guinea pig snuggled down directly on Naraku's sternum; a gray, furry loaf squeaking quietly, as if telling his owner a story. Naraku searched the guide on his TV to find a show to watch. He was debating canceling his cable since the only shows that interested him were _Forensic Files_ and _QVC_ , the latter of which he actively tore apart and made fun of for his amusement. He would even go on their website to leave long, offensive comments about their products.

"Why are you still talking?" Naraku asked the pig harshly, but his voice was soft so he wouldn't scare him. He continued his quiet squeaks and Naraku scratched the pig's left ear gently. The guinea pig stretched out and yawned before lowering his head and nearly closing his eyes.

 _'Perhaps I should obtain a friend for you. I won't have much time to hold you.'_ Naraku thought, hearing Jade's voice in his head begging him to do it.

Following the guinea pig's lead, Naraku dozed off after landing on the _QVC_ channel. Though, Naraku didn't fall completely under. He could still hear the TV and what the people were saying. He could still feel the warmth of the little guinea pig's body. The sounds, smells, and touches soon began to mix. His stomach was now on the couch. The couch was now flat, stiff, but soft due to a mat beneath him. The warmth from the guinea pig's body now rested in the middle of his back and was growing warmer, to the point that Naraku's body tensed up. Voices from the TV morphed into different feminine voices.

"Your hair is so beautiful." a woman cooed.

"Your hair is pretty, too." a young girl replied.

 _'Kagura?'_ Naraku hadn't heard her voice in years, but it was unmistakable.

"No, mine is stringy, dry; yours is wavy and soft."

"So is Naraku's hair. His is wavier and longer than mine."

"Your brother needs a haircut." his mother responded, her tone tougher. "I should just chop it off now while he's asleep."

 _'You bitch.'_ Naraku thought bitterly. He wasn't fully asleep. He could hear her just fine. The warm spot in the middle of his back now burned so intensely, it felt like a thousand sharpened, searing knives were repeatedly stabbing him. He ignored the pain as best as he could, slowly pushing himself to his knees, but that's all his body would allow. It begged him to stop moving and when he didn't, his limbs stiffened and locked up.

"Naraku? What are you doing?" his mother asked harshly.

A smaller sharp pain pinched the middle of his chest and Naraku gasped.

"Ah!" Naraku's eyes snapped open. His soft couch was beneath his back again. Looking down, his eyes met the guinea pig's. The gray pig bit his shirt and pulled on it, grinding his teeth. "Right. Tiny bladder." Naraku remarked, slowly standing as he held the pig's bottom. With a single hand, he lowered the ball of fur into his cage. Naraku reached up with both hands to grasp his hair. His fingers raked through the stands, making sure they were as long as he preferred them. Then, he reached behind himself and pressed against the spot on his back. A pout carved into his face.

 _'I haven't dreamed about that for years.'_ he lamented, stifling a yawn with the back of his hand. He pulled his phone out from his pocket and saw he received a message from Jade.

 ** _'Do you want to hang out this Sunday?'_** her message read. Reading it over several times to make sure he read it correctly, Naraku debated her request in his head. He sold most of his weed to the rebellious mob earlier that morning, so they couldn't do that. Did she want to watch him convert and plug the extraction values into a program to see if his unusual lake had a nutrient trend? Did she want him to explain her homework or grade the lab reports with him? What could she possibly want to do with him?

 ** _'I have nothing better to do than waste my time with you.'_** Naraku replied. Jade wasn't a dangerous, spontaneous person. Whatever she had in mind couldn't be too terrible.

 ** _'You really know how to cheer me up.'_** Was Jade's reply to him. She even attached an emoji showing just how unamused she was by his answer. So, Naraku took a picture of himself smiling cheekily and sent it to her. Jade's final response was a simple, "Dick." It made Naraku chuckle. Then, she sent another message.

 ** _'See you Sunday, then.'_**

 _'Oh, you will see me much sooner than that. A lot more of me.'_ Naraku snickered.

 **000000**

 _'This fucking pencil, I swear,'_ Jade shook her head with frustration. She bought the specific pencils listed for the art class and was promised that they were the best and extremely resilient. Instead, she found that one pencil was extremely resilient against not breaking easily. Grumbling curses under her breath, she twisted the pencil in her little blue pencil sharpener.

"Hey, Jade." Sango said, waving to her as she sat beside her at the center table.

"Hey." Jade replied, checking her other pencils. They were all sharp. It was just that one pencil that always broke.

"So, do you think you're ready for this?" Sango asked with a small smile.

"Nope. I suck at drawing." Jade answered evenly. She didn't want to be angry with Sango. Jade actually agreed with her, even though she was still going to work with Naraku anyway, but once Sango threw the coma comment at her, Jade lost her patience and her temper so badly that it still burned her a day later and she imagined it would burn the next day and the day after that.

 _'I didn't go crazy, though.'_ Jade reminded herself, hoping it would soothe the pangs of guilt in her chest. It didn't work.

"You're definitely not the worst." Sango said, opening her sketchbook.

 _'Nope. I'm just brain damaged.'_ Jade thought bitterly. Then, she immediately felt bad again. Jade settled with crossing her arms on the table surface and hiding her face as her response.

Only a couple of minutes passed before the professor began speaking and the class quieted down immediately. He eventually stopped and Jade assumed he pointed at her questioningly because Sango softly told him, "She's okay; she's just mad." He continued on with his explanation where the model would pose one way for thirty minutes and another way for thirty minutes.

"And remember, I'm not grading the quality; I'm grading the effort and amount of detail put into the drawings. Don't stay in one place on your drawings if you're stuck, either. Move on and circle back. I will also offer some extra credit around the midterm, so don't stress out." the professor explained quickly. "Alright, I will bring the model in."

 _'I guess I can do the extra credit.'_ Jade exhaled heavily when she heard the door open and then close. A hand slapped her upper right arm and gripped it powerfully, causing Jade's entire body to cringe alarmingly.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Jade whined at Sango, whose fingers were still cutting off the circulation in Jade's arm. Her wide, brown eyes were facing straight ahead. Jade turned and immediately squeezed her eyes shut when she saw him.

"What is he doing here?" Sango asked her in a harsh whisper. Jade shrugged dramatically. Her voice didn't exist at the moment.

"This young man is Naraku and he was once in your position," the professor said. Jade opened one eye and Naraku's gaze caught hers. He winked and Jade shook her head while muttering, "You motherfucker." She couldn't hold back the wide smile on her face, though.

"Quick question; if I opt out, how much will this hurt my grade?" Sango asked loudly, holding her hand in the air.

"Uh, well, the highest grade you can get would be a C and that's if you score near perfects on the rest of your assignments." the professor answered carefully.

"Decisions, decisions," Sango grumbled sarcastically.

"I don't think she likes me." Naraku stated innocently, shrugging the robe off his shoulders and letting it pool around his waist.

"Nah, she's fine." the professor insisted. "Alright, choose whatever pose you want. I gave them the body-positivity and respect speech the other day. Good luck, everyone!"

"Jade, I don't care what you say, I'm going to murder him!" Sango said strongly. Jade looked back at her incredulously.

"I'm not stopping you." Jade replied with a giggle. Her amusement about the situation seemed to bother Sango further as she shook her head, grumbling in Japanese under her breath.

"Ladies, there's enough of me to go around." Naraku teased. The robe dropped to the floor entirely and Jade barely dodged Sango's hand, which was reaching for Jade's shirt or neck. She was unsure at that point.

 _'Ooooh, oh my God, I'm going to lose it!'_ Jade almost whimpered as the pressure in her chest built up. Her eyes opened and then immediately shut. _'He isn't circumcised; that's a first!'_ Jade shook her head and felt a few tears streaming down her face. Her entire body shook as she tried to keep her laughter quiet and her head felt like it was going to burst. Hearing other students' quiet comments, whether they liked what they saw or not, wasn't helping her control herself, either. She was already going to do poorly and if the professor heard a peep that sounded like a joke or sexual advance had been made, he would dock a chunk of points from the overall assignment.

"I'm so pissed right now. I never wanted to see him naked." Sango grumbled, her pencil already moving erratically to not only permanently burn his nude body into her mind, but into her sketchbook and portfolio, too. Begrudgingly so.

 _'I remember someone saying they thought he had a cute ass once upon a time,'_ Jade wanted to say, but she opted with silence. Picking up her pencil, Jade looked up and made direct eye contact with Naraku, who had chosen a very conceited Roman god pose; his left arm held outward and his hand balled into a fist, his right arm down by his side, his right knee pointed outward and his left leg locked in place to keep his balance.

"I'm giving you a micropenis!" Jade hissed at him teasingly when she saw her professor was on the other side of the room. He smiled briefly and then resumed his calm, arrogant, "I win," expression.


	19. The Exception

**The Exception**

"Hi, peeg." Jade said gently, sitting Naraku's guinea pig up on his butt in her lap. His paws rested on her thumbs and he chattered happily, seemingly unbothered by her constant attention. "You need to name him."

"Why?" Naraku looked up from his sketchbook at her. He was in the middle of sketching the guinea pig with Jade, but she was making it difficult because she kept moving around.

"It's weird."

"If you wish to call him by a name, be my guest."

"Yes!" Jade giggled, lifting the pig into the air, supporting his butt with one hand and holding his chest with the other. She kissed him on the nose and placed him back into her lap. When she stroked his back, he purred so strongly that his body vibrated. Jade gasped with a giant smile on her face. "Do it again!" She ran her fingers down the guinea pig's back and he purred again.

"He does that occasionally."

"Does it mean he likes me?" she asked curiously. Naraku looked over again. The guinea pig was sniffing and still squeaking, so he wasn't frightened.

"He likes how you pet him." he answered.

"Cool. What should I call you?" Jade poked the pig's nose. "Hanger Dan?"

"Absolutely not. Not in my home, not in my presence, and not while I'm alive." Naraku interjected with disgust. Jade burst into laughter, letting the pig hide under her hands from the loud, unfamiliar noise.

"Hey, you said to be your guest and you haven't cared until now." Jade argued mildly, still smiling.

"Allow me to recant and edit that statement; be my guest and call him by a name that won't make me physically ill."

"Okay." Jade snickered as she began thinking of names so cute and sweet that it would give diabetes to the healthy, my-body-is-a-sacred-temple Naraku. She stared at the critter in her lap, studying his color and markings; a light, creamy gray with three large, darker gray blobs on top of his head, over his left eye, his side, and his butt. They reminded her of the gray smudges graphite left behind when erased or smeared. One ear was the dark gray and the other was the light gray.

"You're actually serious about this?" Naraku asked incredulously, realizing her silence was caused by her thinking of names for a guinea pig, his guinea pig, that she barely knew.

"How about Dab? Because he has dabs of dark gray."

"Better, but still awful."

"Hmm," Jade inhaled deeply as she tried again.

"Why are you here? With me?" Naraku inquired calmly. He saw Jade glance at him, but she pulled her gaze away. Snuggling the guinea pig on her chest, she shrugged and stared at her knees.

"I spend time with you everywhere else. Why is this different?" Jade replied, rubbing the guinea pig's small, dark gray ear. "Do you want me to watch him while you're in Colorado?"

"You're not going?" Naraku frowned.

"Oh, uh, I figured you didn't want me to after, uh, after what I did,"

"I'm not angry about it."

"I was thinking you were uncomfortable with me."

"No." he insisted, knowing it was a lie. "You can still go. I won't stop you." Naraku flinched when her saddened expression immediately changed to excited.

"Thank you!"

"I didn't do anything."

"You could have said no."

"Why would I?"

"Accept my gratitude." Jade ordered with cooled frustration. Naraku snorted quietly and returned to his sketch. "So, are you going to give me a tour of your crib?"

"A tour of what? It's an apartment, not a castle." he said skeptically.

"I've only seen your living room and kitchen." she insisted, holding two fingers up.

"Fine. Put him on the floor. He will follow." Naraku relented, standing up and placing his sketchbook on the table. Jade did as he said and watched with amazement as the guinea pig trotted after Naraku hurriedly.

"Naraku, he's adorable! You taught him cute things!"

"I did not." Naraku bit back, opening his bedroom door. "This is where I sleep sometimes."

"This is where the magic happens, right?" Jade asked, performing one, strong pelvic thrust. A mixture of amusement and concern appeared on her face when she saw the way Naraku was glaring icily at her. His face was completely serious and his body had gone rigid. "I think this is the meanest look you've ever given me."

"You're annoying me."

"You do it to me." she reminded him, striding into his room. It was as she expected; immaculately clean. His bed was king-sized and had black sheets pulled over the mattress with matching pillowcases. His dresser and nightstand were also black. He had two landscape paintings marked with his initials hanging on the wall on either side of his dresser. The bathroom connected to his room was spotless, too.

"See? There's nothing interesting." Naraku pointed out.

"There's one more room," she said. He nodded and walked to the other room, opening the door and flipping the light on. The guinea pig followed Naraku loyally. Jade walked carefully, making sure not to step on the little pig.

"This is my office." Naraku said dryly. Jade examined his desk, which had various maps and articles scattered around with notes scribbled on them.

 _'Those must be for the lake he's studying.'_ Jade noted, realizing one map was of a lake and the surrounding area. She spotted a handheld microscope pushed back against the wall and poked it, noticing the scratches and chipped paint along the surface. Jade turned and began looking through the various books on his bookcases. He had five wooden bookcases, all of which almost reached the ceiling. The books were alphabetized and each bookcase held related subjects of his interests; biology, botany, chemistry, geology, physics, psychology, zoology, books he read for fun, and on the bottom three shelves bookcase on the farthest wall from the door, were smaller, thick books. Each book was a plain color; red, black, blue, green, brown, purple, gray, yellow. They were so small that he stacked them on flat their back covers instead of standing up. Jade could tell they were older due to the wearing and tearing on the bindings and occasional smudges of dirt.

"What books are these?" Jade asked, holding up the green one she randomly picked out.

"They're mine."

"I know that, smart-ass. I was asking what they're about or what they're called."

"You misunderstand; they're mine. I wrote them." Naraku explained, walking over and sitting down cross-legged beside her. He saw the excitement spread on her face as she quickly opened the book.

"You illustrated them, too?" she asked with a wide smile. Naraku nodded. "That's awesome!"

"Get a hold of yourself." Naraku ordered, but his tone was calm. He was more than fine with her flattering him; he just despised the heat rising in his cheeks and the feeling of elation building in his chest.

"Did you identify different tree species? I can't read Japanese." Jade held the book open to a random page.

"Yes. I walked around with an encyclopedia and used it to identify them. I did the same with animals, microbes, clouds, rocks - anything I didn't know, I wanted to know it."

"Oh." Jade flipped through the pages, examining the illustrations of trees, their leaves, and buds. The colors and shading were perfect. His handwriting was crisp, and although she couldn't read Japanese, she was sure the descriptions were worthy of official publishing, too. She heard Naraku click his tongue and lightly pat the top of his thigh. The guinea pig ran to him and leapt directly into his lap.

 _'Don't acknowledge that. He'll just get embarrassed and mad.'_ Jade told herself. She closed the green book and grabbed the other darker green book from the shelf. This one appeared to be about different flowers and herbs.

"When will you receive your grade for the excellent modeling I did the other day?" Naraku's grin was smug. Shaking her head, Jade forced her gaze to remain on the open book in her lap

"That was," Jade cut herself off with a giggle. "I'm completely at peace with it. I imagine we'll get our grades next week."

"And the feminazi? Sango, I think you called her?" he continued, leaning back on his hands. "Her anger subsided after about three minutes of staring at me."

"It subsided on the outside." Jade corrected him, flipping through more pages. His deep chuckle sent shivers down her spine.

 _'Why couldn't he have some screeching, pre-pubescent voice?'_

"I must admit, I'm hesitant to see your sketches of me. Your skills are abysmal."

"Well, I'm still having issues holding my arms up, so,"

"That makes it undoubtedly worse. Did you end up giving me a micropenis?" he questioned humorously.

"Better; I censored it." Jade said. Immediately, Naraku leaned forward and scowled. He looked completely offended.

"With what?" he asked sharply.

"Pot leaves."

"Oh," Naraku exhaled and his expression lightened as he mowed that image over in his head. When he decided that he liked it, he laughed softly. He looked down when the guinea pig began biting his jeans and pulling on the fabric, signaling his need to relieve himself. Naraku scooped him up with one hand and held him against his chest, slowly exiting the room. Jade continued her browsing through Naraku's plantlife book. She heard the refrigerator open and the water run, followed by loud, sharp chopping noises. It must have been snack time. Jade flipped the page.

"Uh," Jade froze. On the back of a page of a flower with a cuplike shape and two color variants, were colored sketches of a young woman with pale skin and long black hair; straight in opposition to Naraku's wavy hair. There was one sketch of her sitting against a tree with her nose buried in a book, one of her holding the same type of flower from the other side of the page and smiling, and a third one of her with an annoyed expression carved into her face, as if she had been told a bad joke.

 _'Her hair is black. Maybe a relative? Sister?'_ Jade immediately shot that idea down. Naraku's hair was wavy, his skin was darker than this sketched woman's, and his brown eyes had a reddish tinge to them while the woman's were a lighter gray, almost-blue color. Although, that didn't mean a relative's features had to be the same. Jade didn't look anything like her shorter, curvier cousins, her voluptuous aunt, or her grandmother, who looked like a confident seductress in her younger days. They all had the classic dark, almost black hair, dark brown eyes, and browned skin related to Mexicans. _'No man, or boy, in his right mind would sketch his relative like this.'_ The poses, the clear effort he spent on making sure her shape, shading, and highlights were flawless - it was intimate. Jade heard his footsteps approaching and felt her heart slam against her chest, causing her body to twitch violently. She frantically flipped to a different page.

"Are you still looking at those? You can't even read them." Naraku complained calmly, sitting down on the floor beside her. He offered her a bowl of diced fruit. The sharp aroma of apples, oranges, and grapes entered Jade's nostrils. Naraku pulled the bowl back to himself when he noticed she had broken out into a sweat. "What?"

"N-Nothing. I mean, my heart still randomly flutters sometimes." she explained, trying to catch her breath. Naraku placed the bowl of fruit on the floor and reached forward, pressing two fingers against the side of her neck, just under her jaw. Jade remained still as Naraku stared at his watch on his left wrist, his lips moving as he counted the beats of her pulse. When he finished, he looked up as he solved the math in his head.

"What is your normal resting heart rate?" he asked, still staring up.

"Uh, before or after Fight Club: Chemistry Edition?"

"Both. Also, I rather enjoy that description of what happened."

"I'm clever, sometimes." she shrugged, trying to blink away the images of the sketched woman from her memory. "Before, it was normally just under seventy and now it's usually eighty, close to ninety sometimes."

"It's currently one hundred-thirty-six, so don't stand up." he said, finally lowering his gaze to her. "Is that why you wanted to come over? To die in my apartment and inconvenience me?"

"No, but I'll keep that in mind for the next time you piss me off." Jade giggled, leaning over to pinch a piece of a grape between her thumb and index finger, plopping it in her mouth.

"You should do more cardio. A resting heart rate of sixty or seventy is still relatively unhealthy for someone your age and size."

"What's yours?"

"Thirty-eight, forty,"

"Wait, at rest?" Jade asked with horror. Naraku blinked, staring vacantly at her.

"Yes." he answered. Jade leaned away slightly and gave him a distrustful, wide-eyed stare.

"You sure you even have a heart?"

"Literally speaking."

"Fair enough."

Once Jade was feeling better, Naraku ushered her out of his office and back to his living room. They both agreed to finish grading the lab reports since Naraku was unwilling to do most things she would have suggested anyway. Jade tried to be a little more forgiving than Naraku when it came to grading, but his criteria was difficult to work around. He was difficult.

"Does it still hurt?" Naraku asked, breaking the silence between them. Jade looked up and tilted her head with confusion.

"What?"

"You've been rubbing your chest for a while." he pointed out. At that moment, Jade realized her left hand was gently pressed against her chest.

"No. I think it's just a new habit of mine." she said. She saw him nod and return to quickly crossing out wrong answers and correcting them with a red pen. She tried to do the same, but her mind kept wandering back to the sketches of the young woman.

 _'He hasn't mentioned any kind of interest in anyone. He hates people. He teases about sex, but Bruce said he isn't interested in that stuff.'_ Jade glanced up at Naraku. He must have been grading one of the better student's reports because he looked content. _'Maybe he only engages in romantic relationships, not sexual ones.'_ Jade shot that idea down as well. There was no way Naraku could care about anyone, even a tiny bit. _'But he apologized to me.'_ Her leg began to bounce and her breathing began to quicken. _'He's so fucking confusing!'_

"You're acting strange." Naraku stated, looking up and staring back at her. Jade knew she was caught; her eyes were wide and she felt her heart pounding. Her body was doing things she had no control over!

"Uh, no?" Jade replied unconvincingly. Naraku placed his pen down and picked up his glass of water, sipping from it and never breaking eye contact with her. His gaze tore through her so powerfully! She feared he could actually read her mind! Clearing his throat, Naraku placed his glass down and breathed softly.

"It seems like you wish to ask me something." he said calmly. Jade felt her heart slam against her chest again, screaming at her to do something, anything!

"No," she choked out. Her breaths were shallow and labored, her vision was going blurry, and while her skin felt hot to the touch, her blood in her veins ran cold.

"If you die, I'm using your body as fertilizer for my next batch of weed."

"Ha, okay," Jade tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a whimper.

"Perhaps I don't want to hear your question if it's making you react this way," Naraku remarked, finishing off his water and keeping a watchful eye on her while doing so. Jade resigned to resting her head on his table to avoid eye contact with him, which he was perfectly fine with.

Jade's heart finally calmed down after half an hour and she began to help finishing off the grading the reports. She glanced up at Naraku once more, but he was lost in Science World again, so she decided to leave him there. She couldn't help but to see him in a different light now. She tried to convince herself that the sketches could have meant nothing, but her gut was telling her otherwise. Did he actually have a friend? Was she his girlfriend? Did she reject him? Could that have been why he was so bitter and resigned against any kind of relationships or was he already that way and she was his exception?

 _'If I bring it up, he will probably start torturing me again. Just leave it be, Jade.'_ she urged herself.

"Did you say you brought your Xbox?" Naraku asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence. Jade looked up and nodded. "I suppose I can watch you play when we finish grading."

"You're in luck; I suck now."

"Excellent."

Naraku placed the newly-graded reports inside a folder and slid them into his shoulder bag, alongside the gradebook. He looked over to watch Jade hook up her console. It didn't take her long. Jade quickly reached behind the router, which sat beside the TV alongside the modem, and pulled the cable she needed. Naraku strode into his kitchen and opened his alcohol cabinet, hearing electronic pops and notifications echoing from his speakers.

"Do you have beer?" Jade called out.

"I have other options."

"Cool. If I don't drink while I play, I probably will have a heart attack."

"Gin and tonic?"

"Dibs!" she said enthusiastically. Naraku snorted, but grabbed the two needed bottles and two small glasses. He dropped ice cubes in first, then poured the gin and tonic water simultaneously. He had made the drink so many times he didn't need to individually measure the ingredients anymore. He heard Jade curse dramatically and frowned as he stirred the drinks, listening to her rant about notifications. He grabbed each glass, joining Jade on the couch. Jade took one glass from him and toasted a thanks to him before downing half of the drink in one go. Naraku could almost see her hair bristle as she shook and forced her body to take the alcohol. Sitting in her lap was a portable arcade stick. Naraku arched an eyebrow.

"You take this very seriously." he remarked, taking a sip from his gin and tonic.

"Well, when you can win thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands, in tournaments, you kind of want to take it seriously. Have fun, of course, but treat it as a job."

"A job that you work while drinking?"

"Bruh, I've bodied people while being drunk and high at the same time." Jade stated proudly, placing her hand against her chest. "It doesn't matter once you're mid-to-high tier."

"Heh, point taken. I've conducted my fair share of experiments while high." Naraku replied smugly, taking another drink and looking over at his TV screen. He barely had time to observe the images or hear the music as Jade's fingers tapped several buttons rapidly, bringing her to a character selection screen. Once more, Jade's fingers tapped before Naraku could see each character, though he did spot a raptor, a robot, and a few female characters.

"So, this is my main; Sabrewulf. Prepare yourself, because I'm about to talk fighting game nonsense to you." Jade stated.

"I suppose it's fair since I've melted your brain with chemistry several times." Naraku retorted calmly. He was playing it calm and cool on the outside, but he was genuinely interested on the inside. He didn't know much about this particular game, but a few of Jade's videos revealed that if there was one thing she was good at, it was knowing exactly what her character could do in any situation.

"Sabrewulf is a rushdown character, which means he's in his prime when being used aggressively or by someone just patient enough to make every blow count, which makes him seem even more devastating than he actually is. He used to be top tier, but he's lowered in ranks over the years, which he kind of deserved because his Eclipse was some bullshit, even though I abused the shit out of it." Jade began, pointing at the screen. "He has ridiculous reach on his grabs and high-low mixups. His forward dash is great for mix-ups and for resets, and dear fucking god, the mind games you can play with this character are never-ending."

"Mind games? The gameplay is that complex?"

"Oooh yeah. We call it, "footsies." You stay just out of reach of each other, jabbing, jumping, lunging, doing fake-outs, seeing who will fuck up first, and with Sabrewulf's dash and reach, he's fantastic in that aspect. I like to bait my opponents into doing something unsafe by acting like I'm about to do something unsafe. You can also condition your opponent by punishing or not punishing their actions."

"I see."

"My favorite thing to do, especially to Hisako players, is to run full-speed at them and uppercut."

"A Japanese character?" Naraku perked up slightly.

"Yeah, Killer Instinct likes tropes, so she's the vengeful Japanese ghost girl trope."

"Onryō." Naraku said.

"Onryō...cool." Jade repeated. "Well, she has a naginata which has really good reach and she can parry with it, and her forward-dash is possibly the best in the game, but Sabrewulf's running uppercut beats her out and Hisako players get saaaaaalty." Jade giggled, backing out of the screen and switching over to find matches to fight.

"You take great joy in this." Naraku said with a grin.

"Definitely." she agreed. The game found a match and threw her in with an opponent she didn't know. Naraku watched as she chose Sabrewulf, which brought up a menu for her to choose one of her custom costumes and colors from. She chose a dark green Sabrewulf with a smokey green aura. He was wearing protective goggles with a green tint, a green apron, torn brown pants, and brown gloves with the fingers cut off so the werewolf's claws were prominent and ready for use. Naraku began chuckling.

"Is he a scientist?" he asked with amusement.

"Yep. Sabrewulf hates his curse and is constantly trying to find a cure. His stage is an alchemical laboratory." Jade explained, tapping the buttons and waiting for her opponent to finish their selection. "But, my backstory for him is that he's a drug lord in the midst of New Mexico, but instead of selling that crystal blue persuasion, he sells the dankest weed ever known to man or monster, which explains why he's green with green smoke emitting from his body."

"Heisenberg the werewolf?"

"I named him Heisenwolf." Jade snickered as Naraku groaned with disgust. He wasn't going to admit that he thought it was amusing. The match began with the announcer shouting, "Fight!" Jade's opponent was a paper-white woman with black hair, black clothes, a maroon cape, and a set of sharp fangs in her mouth.

"The werewolf versus the vampire," Naraku pointed out.

"Yeah, fuck this bitch!" Jade replied bitterly, blocking the vampire woman's dive kicks and weapons made from her silver blood. When Heisenwolf tried to swing back, the vampire chuckled tauntingly as she turned into mist, floating out of the werewolf's range. Naraku's eyes studied both characters' health bars. Despite blocking most of the attacks, Heisenwolf's health bar was missing a chunk while the vampire was missing none, but hers was being replaced with a silver bar.

"Does she use her health against you?" Naraku asked.

"Yeah, Mira literally uses her blood, so some attacks require her to use her health bar. But if she can catch me in a bite combo, she can gain it back." Jade explained, pointing at the screen. "Just like that." It was just as Jade said; the silver bar was mostly replaced with a green color. "However, if I can get her to use enough of it, I can kill her a lot quicker."

"Hm." Naraku took another drink. Heisenwolf was being completely overwhelmed and his controller knew it, cursing under her breath. The vampire, Mira, had complete control of the air and ground space, jumping over the werewolf from the front and back, forcing him to either block or take a hit. The werewolf was quick, but the vampire was quicker and before long, despite Jade almost bringing the game back into her favor, Mira caught her in a nasty combo, ending it by slaying the werewolf with a powerful blow from a silvery scythe. Jade leaned back, performed three quick, frustrated jerk-off motions over her lap, and jumped back to the character selection screen to prepare for the second match against Mira.

"This player is aggressive. I don't think they know a lot of her moves are easy shadow-counter bait. Let's find out." Jade said, choosing a different color variation of Heisenwolf; a black coat with a bloody-red snout, matching torn trousers, red apron, black gloves, and red-tinted goggles.

"Does changing the color actually help?"

"As long as you believe." she replied, slowly waving her hand and donning a misty-eyed expression. She jumped into the second round. This match started off differently as Jade was able to leap over the blood bat projectiles and dive at Mira from the air, catching her off guard and completing a short and savage combo.

"Moment of truth," Jade murmured, backing away slightly. The vampire dashed forward with a spinning dive kick. Heisenwolf blocked. She continued with a flip kick and Heisenwolf opened his stance as the announcer shouted, "Shadow counter!" The werewolf answered back with five rabid slashes, barking and snarling and bouncing Mira off the wall and leaping at her, capturing her in a second combo. "Break?" Jade asked, throwing out a counter. The announcer screamed, "Counter breaker!"

"How did you know they would go for it?" Naraku asked her. His eyes rested on her face, but quickly darted back to the TV as Heisenwolf finished his onslaught with an overhead arcing slash. He dashed back and forth over Mira's body, waiting for her to stand. She did and mist-dashed out of range. Once more, she cast out her blood bats, and once again, Jade answered with a jump and a dive kick.

"On paper, Sabrewulf loses this matchup almost every time, so they're banking on me being overwhelmed. They think they can go shit-ham without consequences." Jade sighed after she bit away the last of the vampire's first lifebar. "Good ol' 'Wulf might not have the advantage, but he has a few tools to keep things honest."

"I see." Naraku believed he knew what she meant. When there were bats, she either jumped and kicked the unguarded vampire, or she would use her shadow meter to jump through them unharmed and catch the vampire as she was running away. Jade didn't break every combo, but she shadow-countered every kick combo her opponent tried. Since her opponent was swinging away with abandon, they were draining their own lifebar for Jade. All she had to do was clean up with shorter, safer combos. She took the second match convincingly.

"This is going a lot better than the other day. I was getting destroyed." Jade admitted, taking a quick swig of her drink before jumping back into the third, deciding match. "I have to be careful because they know that I know now." Naraku paid close attention to the match and she was correct. Her opponent was no longer flying back and forth or aggressively swinging away at her. They were cautious, carefully poking to draw Jade out or find a chink in her armor, but Jade was far more patient and cool-headed.

 _'Whenever she gains the lead, she backs off and makes them come to her. A desperate aggressor is more likely to slip.'_ Naraku realized. He smirked to himself. Not only was it Jade's game strategy, it was her life's mantra. It was exactly how she dealt with him; poke him enough to set him off, then put all focus into ducking and weaving and when he was vulnerable and out of ideas, she tagged him back. In the end, Naraku walked away far more exhausted and frustrated than her. _'I remember avoiding her. I couldn't handle her because she was handling me.'_

"Fuuuuuck. That match-up is difficult." Jade whined after her Heisenwolf howled victoriously. She tapped a few more buttons to search for another match.

"Do you not play another character?"

"I'm passable with Riptor, and-" Jade smiled widely when Naraku stared back at her blankly. "She's the raptor."

"The Jurassic Park trope?"

"Yep. One of her moves is Clever Girl.'"

"Ugh. Kill me."

"They gave her feather costume options, though." Jade added quickly, backing out of the search and relaunching it for faster results.

"I'm glad that in a game with vampires, werewolves, ghosts, robots, and terrible movie references, the developers decided to be scientifically accurate and gave the raptor feather options." Naraku responded sarcastically, draining the rest of his gin and tonic. Jade began laughing and did the same with her drink. She cleared her throat after placing her empty glass on the table.

"I don't trust myself in tournaments with Riptor, but I've got a good grip on Spinal, so he's going to be my cavalry if Heisenwolf can't scratch it out."

"I assume he's the skeleton."

"Yeaaaaah! What gave it away?" Jade asked him excitedly, but Naraku could taste the sarcasm in the air. He stared her down until she finally cringed and apologized. He stood up and grabbed her glass, only for her to fire another sassy remark at him.

Time seemed to fly by as Jade continued to play. After her second gin and tonic, her skills improved somehow, and her gameplay changed from being respectfully patient to being a calculated troll. Heisenwolf would jab, jump, and snap his jaws aimlessly, giving off the sense that Jade was unsure of which buttons did what, and when her opponents took the bait, she would go insane. Time after time, she would pull off fifty to sixty percent combos and even landed an eighty percent combo due to one of her well-placed counters.

 _'She is a force to reckoned with in this world.'_ Naraku admitted silently, watching as she dove under two flying daggers, connecting a low blow to the legs of her opponent. They tried to break, but the spinning dive happened so suddenly that they only had a split second to guess light, medium, or heavy, and they guessed wrong. Her opponent wasn't a chump, though. She was a tall, brown-skinned Latina woman wielding two daggers and wearing brilliant white armor with long white dreadlocks to match. She dodged and blocked many of Jade's attempts, too.

"White Diamond beat me twice in the Combo Breaker tournament back in May." Jade said aloud, blocking the two daggers again. "She's probably one of the top ten best players in KI."

"Where do you rank?"

"Top twenty or thirty, I think." Jade leaned forward as the match began to draw to a close. Both characters' health bars were below the danger line. One touch and one of them could go into their ultra and end the match immediately. Both werewolf and warrior swiped at each other, standing just out of range. The clock was counting down the final seconds of the match. The music, which grew more dynamic and dramatic the more the fighters ripped each other apart, was now playing fast and loud, indicating the fight was coming to an end. The woman threw her daggers individually and Jade blocked both, sucking in air through her teeth. "I have one chance!" Heisenwolf charged forward with reckless abandon. The Latina woman connected her daggers and threw them. "Shitshitshitshitshitshit!" The shadow energy surrounded Heisenwolf as he crouched down. He then launched himself in the air at the woman, bypassing her charged daggers. His claws connected and Jade activated her ultra, quickly standing up with both hands in the air as her arcade stick fell onto the couch beside Naraku.

"What?"

"Aaaaahhhhhhh! I can't believe that worked! I've never done that against her!" Jade screamed, now pulling on her hair.

"Wow. Good fucking games, Weed. I didn't even think that was possible. I'll have to remember that." a woman's sultry voice echoed from the TV. She sounded mildly amused. "I'm recording, so if you want that footage, hit me up. Will you be at Regionals?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Jade continued to celebrate, but she had pulled her phone out, presumably sending a message to White Diamond as she didn't have her headset with her to reply.

"I'm still confused. It was an impressive move, but you've performed better ones." Naraku pointed out, holding her arcade stick in his hands as she sat down. He handed it to her and waited for her explanation.

"Okay," Jade began, her smile wide and contagious. Naraku almost wanted to smile with her, but he scolded himself. "Maya's daggers are unblockable, unbreakable, and they track you down when she throws them after they're fully charged. It's better to block anyway because you can recover quicker than if you're caught pressing buttons. But,"

"They are still projectiles, so your shadow slash was able to provide you enough temporary invulnerability to bypass them and enough range to chase her down, open a combo, and activate your ultra." Naraku finished confidently. It had happened many times in the previous matches. It was almost her signature move.

"Exaaaaaactly."

"You're drunk."

"Tipsy."

"Sleep it off here." Naraku told her. Then, he turned and grinned at her. "Another?"

"In a few minutes. Thanks, friend." Jade chirped, patting him on the shoulder. Naraku tensed up, almost flinched from her, but instead, he looked away silently and forced himself to hold still. Slowly and gently, Jade slid her arcade stick into his lap, giggling maniacally. "Want to try?" she asked slyly. Naraku blinked and inhaled deeply. Yes. He did. When he readjusted it in his lap comfortably, Jade began bouncing and smiling.

"Shut up." Naraku bit.

"I didn't-"

"Shut up." he repeated sharply. Her mouth closed and she ceased her bouncing. "You can speak now. I don't know which buttons do what."

 **000000**

Gasping, Naraku sat up in his bed, feeling around his blankets to make sure he was still in his room, in his apartment; far away from that place. He held his head with his hands and exhaled, his body shuddering with it. Naraku winced when he felt the familiar burning pain on his back where his scar was, but when he touched it, it was fine. There was no pain; he couldn't even feel that patch of his back.

 _'Why am I dreaming about that lately? It happened years ago. Why now?'_ Naraku wondered, closing his eyes. They ached, and his body was still heavy from the deep sleep, but his mind was running, burying the dream and the memories in a flood of new, repetitive thoughts. He moved off his bed and onto his feet, deciding to start his day early.

When he was released from his therapy prison after another session of silence, Naraku decided to take a leisurely stroll around the campus. Summer had left a couple of weeks ago, but the weather was still warm during the day. The nights, however, were cool, and the breezes told of oncoming rain and chilly air that required sweaters. Naraku could see the green color of the leaves beginning to dull in many trees and bushes. Some leaves were already shifting to yellow or orange colors. Autumn had always been his favorite season. He enjoyed the scenery once the trees' leaves all changed colors. The cooler weather made it easier to wear the clothes he preferred and his long, heavy hair became a warm ally. His preference of the season wasn't because of his approaching birthday, though, as others assumed of him. Had he not been forced to memorize the date, it would be just another day to him.

 _'At least I don't have to pretend to be grateful for it anymore.'_ he reminded himself. That had been the worst part of his birthday in the past; thanking someone for forcibly bringing him into existence while watching his sister be celebrated for her existence. As if that wasn't aggravating enough, he was given such a magnificent mind that every other person on the planet was a dull, moronic experience for him. _'I suppose Jade isn't terrible. She tries to communicate with me.'_ Naraku felt his chest tighten. There was once someone else, too.

"Stop it." he whispered to himself with frustration. He noticed his thoughts would spiral out of control recently and they would lead him back to something he didn't want to remember. The only way he could make it stop was when he buried himself in his work. Sketching, working out, reading for pleasure, devising plans against Bruce and Sesshomaru once his probation period was over; none of it was enough to keep his mind in the present. Only his research could calm him. Something deep inside him demanded that he continue his research. He had even thought about drugging Jade with the pink solution made from her blood even though he told himself he wouldn't use her again. He truly didn't want to, but that deep something continuously suggested her anyway.

 _'I have a few ideas for the solutions, but it will require me to sacrifice unknown amounts of both, and if these ideas yield nothing, I probably won't have much left to work with.'_ Naraku stopped walking for a moment, noticing he was standing near the fountain, which had been turned off due to incoming cold weather. _'Unless I can find a way to extract it from the microbes. If I can do that, then-'_

"Hey! You!" a familiar voice barked. Blinking, Naraku turned around, watching as Sango marched towards him quickly with her dark brown hair spilling over her shoulders. From what he knew, she was determined, stubborn, and completely overbearing; he often wondered how and why Jade was friends with her.

"Should I begin stripping?" Naraku asked her with a grin while tauntingly unbuttoning the top two buttons of his light blue shirt. Her cheeks blushed red, but she stayed on course.

"I'm here about Jade."

"I haven't touched her today, or yesterday," he announced flippantly, tossing a strand of his hair behind his shoulder.

"What's going on between you two?" she blurted out. Naraku took a moment to read her. She definitely wasn't happy, but her posture didn't scream, "Murder," either. Her crossed arms did indicate her short fuse was already lit, though.

"I paid her; she does my bitch-work." he answered simply, his tone sounding as if they were discussing the weather.

"Yeah, I believed that for a while, but now I'm not so sure." Sango huffed, uncrossing her arms and planting her hands on her hips. "Are you guys sleeping together? Secretly dating?"

"Why does our relationship have to be sexual or romantic?"

"So, you have a relationship with her, do you? I thought you just paid her to do your bitch-work."

"What does it matter to you?" Naraku asked her accusingly. "What Jade does is her business, not yours, and my business is certainly no concern of yours." That struck a note with her and he wasn't even trying to that time. Sango inhaled deeply and stared at the ground, her foot tapping a steady beat.

"As her friend, it's my responsibility to voice my concerns to her if I see her interacting with dangerous people."

"You've done your job quite well. You deserve a raise." he remarked, flashing her a quick grin. "However, the more you voice your concerns, the more she will back away and run directly to those dangerous people."

"Please, she-"

"You must have said something bothersome recently because she asked to hang out with me Sunday and then drunkenly passed out on my couch after downing three gin and tonics and a shot of tequila, all served by yours truly. I woke the next morning and she was alive. She left my apartment alive. I assume she returned to you alive. Hungover, but alive."

"She was with you?" Sango looked completely blown away, but she quickly regained her composure. "Alright, then. Why did you hang out with her?"

"Look, Dr. Feminazi, I will not stand here and be psychoanalyzed by a young woman who gets offended when I exhale in her general direction. Did you honestly seek me out just to ask me what we do together? Ask Jade. Or have you already and you simply don't believe her?"

"I asked why, not what."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does!"

"Not to you. Our partnership, relationship, whatever it is you wish to call it, is none of your business."

"You make me feel like I'm going to find her laying in a ditch somewhere."

"Oh, spare me." Naraku whined as he rolled his eyes. "I have access to all kinds of chemicals and disposal units. Even if I didn't, burning the body is just as effective. You would never find her if I wanted to kill her."

"What if it's an accident?" Sango asked, her tone dark. A coldness shot through Naraku's body. "What if one of your little schemes or pranks goes wrong and she doesn't make it?" The icy sensation was now burning! He was burning! Her screams began echoing through his head.

"I-I am not," Naraku's teeth clamped together. The burn on his back was unbearable.

 _'She didn't make it.'_ He would have allowed his entire body to burn if that meant going back to stop himself from making such an obvious error in his calculations.

"I am one of the most experienced students on this campus and in this city. If anything, Jade is safest with me in terms of experiments. I am in complete control of what goes on when we do work together."

"Oh, so the whole flipout and comatose thing had nothing to do with you or the experiment? You were there, you were in complete control of that situation, and she almost died!" she spat as she waved her arms dramatically. Naraku looked away, exhaling loudly. "Yeaaaaah, that's what I thought. I guess I should be somewhat relieved; it looks like you can feel something after all. You seem bothered, Naraku. What's wrong?"

"You're so worried about Jade ending up dead in a ditch somewhere that you're forgetting about yourself." Naraku replied calmly, but coldly; his eyes locking on Sango's. He saw hers widen slightly. "I highly recommend you bring a friend the next time you feel the need to seek me out. I am done with this conversation." Naraku turned and decided he was going to read in his office until the urge to strangle someone disappeared. Naraku glanced back and saw that Sango had begun walking in the opposite direction.

His office darkened as the sun began to set. The clatter of chairs, doors, footsteps, and chatter had died down hours ago. Naraku reached over and turned on the desk lamp he found inside the department's storage closet.

"Hm, that's odd." he murmured to himself, highlighting the sentence he just read. He was nearly done reading all of the articles Bruce found for him the first time through. This particular article was more of an observational article than it was an experimental one. It stated that there was an alarming lack of fauna in and around the lake. Birds rarely chirped, bugs rarely buzzed, frogs rarely croaked; it was nearly dead except for the plant life around the lake, which flourished and held some of the oldest trees and purest, untouched land in all of Japan.

 _'Why couldn't I have visited the lake when I was a few years older?'_ Naraku brooded. His mother took them there once. Naraku and Kagura were only five years old at the time, though. Had they been seven or eight, he could have taken some notes. His sister probably would have taken some pictures. The notes and pictures would have been laughable at best, but anything would have helped solidify the memory. All he remembered was the coarse sand, chilly water that his sister and himself were only allowed to dip their feet into, and some local tales about the lake being cursed or poisoned. The possibility of poisoning was why his mother forbid them from going into the water and while at the time and for many years later, he found that to be ridiculous, he now knew that there had been some truth to that tale after all.

"Except the water has been tested and no poison was found." Naraku grumbled, continuing on to the next paragraph. He did have a possible explanation for the lack of fauna in the lake, though. He finally began messing around with his extraction values and found that the phosphorus and nitrogen levels in the lake were exceptionally high, which would cause an algae bloom. That was probably why his samples were overflowing with microbes and with a consistent excess of algae every year, the lake became anoxic. There wasn't much on the planet that could survive without oxygen.

"Jade's beloved water bears do." Naraku snorted and shook his head. He was one-hundred percent sure that when he eventually would quiz her over this material, she would bring up the eight-legged creatures.

 _'My only issues are where are the nutrients coming from, how are they leaking into the lake, and why was there a sudden increase instead of a gradual increase? Nearby agricultural sites don't quite explain any of it thoroughly.'_ he inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, rubbing them gently and hissing, "Goddamn it," under his breath when he felt the cold, wet tip of the highlighter graze his forehead.

 **000000**

Sango glanced up from her zoology book when she felt the table shake again. Jade was sitting across from her with one earbud in her right ear, a mouse and external hard drive plugged into her laptop, and a concentrated frown carved into her face. She watched her odd friend pull her loose, gray T-shirt from her skin, shift the shirt around on her torso, and then reach up to readjust her bra. Her movement shook the table again.

 _'I wonder if she realizes she has lost weight.'_ Sango wanted to say something, but she chose to keep her mouth shut and think it through. Since waking from her coma, Jade had been touchy about nearly everything. Sango felt terrible for her. She couldn't imagine having to rebound from all of that. She barely dodged having to go to physical therapy, though Sango helped her out with exercising and building her muscle strength. _'I know that coma patients can wake up with completely altered personalities, but there's something off with hers. I've never heard of being so angry that your nose bleeds.'_ It only happened once, but it was enough to shake Sango to her core.

"Motherfucker," Jade grumbled under her breath, viciously and repeatedly tapping a key until whatever displeased her was gone. Sango reached over to grab her water bottle, taking a long gulp from it.

"Hey, Jade," Sango began after swallowing a mouthful of water. Jade's eyebrows rose, her frustration shifting to curiosity.

"Yeah?"

"You're still going to that conference, right?"

"Yeah."

"I don't mean this in a bad way, but your clothes don't fit. You've lost weight."

"Yep. It's annoying."

"Would you like to go shopping for some new clothes before you leave?"

"Sure." Jade said with a nod. Sango nodded in return and returned to her textbook, writing down a few more notes for the chapter. Still, she had an uneasy feeling in her gut whenever Jade was around. Kagome had noticed it, too, but she insisted it was part of the healing process, and that the old Jade would return before the end of the year. Sango was doubtful, though.

 _'As long as she is around Naraku, she won't be the same. Should I tell her I spoke to him? He might have told her already. She might be angry with me for going behind her back like that.'_

"Do the stuff that I want, please." Jade whined, flicking her laptop lightly. Her eyes widened with shock. "Oh, you did the thing. Thanks."

"What are you working on?"

"I'm messing around with this cool program where you plug in whatever values you have and it will spit them out onto different graphs and will convert them to different measurements to make it easier to read. Then I'm going to put them onto my poster for the conference."

"That sounds helpful. Can I get that program?"

"Yeah, I can copy it onto your laptop,"

"I have an external hard drive."

"That's a better option."

"So, what are the values for?"

"I'm interpreting and comparing phosphorus and nitrogen levels of this lake for Naraku. He already knows what this all means, but this is his way of making sure I'm keeping up."

"Oh? So, what is happening with the lake?"

"No fuckin' clue." Jade laughed. "Something, something algae, something, something, low oxygen; that's about where I am."

"Oh."

"Alright," Jade's heavy exhale made Sango's body tense up. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit."

"That, right there; your attitude. I just want to help you and you act like I'm the enemy." Sango began, but she held her hands up and shook her head. "I'm sorry, okay? What you do with him is none of my business. Maybe he has changed."

"I wouldn't go that far, but he is trying harder with me. I have to give him the benefit of the doubt. He did save me." Jade said. "Why are you bringing him up?"

"I talked with him the other day."

"Really?"

"Well, more like we bickered and then he threatened me."

"Asshole." Jade groaned, letting her head fall backwards. "Please, ignore him. He's making things seem worse than they are because it upsets you."

"So, you don't feel in danger with him? On edge?" Sango pressed on.

"Danger? No. On edge? Eh, he's a dick. It's going to happen. I just," she paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "I get the feeling that deep down, he wants a friend, but his pride won't let him admit it. I'm just working with what I have. I don't hate him. I've tried to, but I can't bring myself to it."

"Alright, then." Sango exhaled, the sensation of relief overcoming her. Maybe Jade hadn't changed and it was just Sango's conscience that was clouding her judgment. It was an answer she would expect from Jade; playing the middle ground. "If that's what you want, then I'll back off. I'm sorry. And that coma comment I made was way out of line."

"I'm sorry, too, for losing my temper." Jade said, reaching across the table with her fist. Sango bumped it with her fist and both roommates nodded at each other. "Oh, uh, Naraku is too much of an ass to ask, but would you be willing to watch his guinea pig while we're gone? He has a little portable cage and all of his food will be prepared."

"Sure. I won't turn down an animal because its owner is a dick." Sango replied with a smile. "What's his name?"

"Naraku refuses to name him, but I've been calling him random cute names. Hanger Dan is the one Naraku hates the most so far."

"Then I'll call him that."


	20. Restricted

**Restricted**

 **A/N - Thanks to everyone who has read to this point. It's much appreciated.**

"Why did you agree to keep us in the same room? I don't like roommates." Naraku growled.

"It's for tonight and tomorrow night only. I think we can tolerate each other." Jade retorted softly, tossing her suitcase onto the bed closest to the window.

"I want that bed."

"Fine." Jade snipped, dragging her suitcase off the bed and over to bed closest to the bathroom. Naraku almost changed his mind again just to spite her, but he refrained and decided to take the argument down a different road.

"We have to be ready in an hour; can you do that?" he asked condescendingly. A moment of silence rose between them. Naraku turned to her and saw her staring at him with frustrated confusion.

"You're the obsessive pretty one." she finally said, pointing at him. "I should be asking you that."

"I'm a ten even on my worst days."

"But this isn't your worst day; this is an important day for you."

"Not for you?"

"More so for you. Go get pretty and leave my ugliness to me." Jade retorted, now pointing at the bathroom. It was Naraku's turn to stare her down silently. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion when she realized he was thinking of an insult.

"Six out of ten." he said gently. He saw the red color rising in her cheeks as she held back the urge to say something heated.

"Thank you." she bit quietly. Naraku grinned cheekily, taking his clothes and brush with him into the bathroom. He shed his worn jeans and black T-shirt, slipping on his black slacks, a white tank top, and a periwinkle blue dress shirt. He paused buttoning it up when he heard rustling around in the room, but he figured Jade was taking the opportunity to change, too. He tucked his shirt in and began taming his hair, which didn't require too much attention since he had tamed it earlier that morning before boarding the plane. He pulled his hair into a high ponytail to help keep his mane in check while still allowing it to look majestic.

 _'This blue looks better on me than I thought.'_ Naraku realized, turning to examine himself from different angles.

When Naraku decided he looked perfect, he walked out of the bathroom, expecting to see an impatient and plain Jade, but instead, she was standing at the tall mirror, applying eyeliner. She had changed into a fitted light olive green dress that ended just under her knees. It covered her chest, but had no sleeves. Naraku blinked after feeling the sting of staring too intensely. Jade caught his gaze in the mirror and inhaled deeply.

"Just go ahead and get it out of your system." Jade said, almost whining.

"You look nice."

"Thanks, ass- what?" she spun around to look at him directly.

"I said you looked nice." Naraku repeated, feeling the heat rushing to his cheeks. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Oh, uh," Jade looked like a lost child. "Thanks."

Naraku stared at everything but Jade as he waited for her to finish with her makeup. She wasn't taking a long time, but it felt like an eternity to him. It was only the first of many conferences he was going to attend for his thesis, but he was excited all the same. He looked down at himself. When was the last time he felt excited?

"Okay. I think this is as good as it'll get." Jade announced with a tone of defeat. Naraku stood and walked over to her, wondering why she sounded displeased. She had done a fine job of focusing on accentuating her eyes and cheekbones, which were her best features. She had kept her technique so focused and light that he almost couldn't tell she had makeup on. Her dress coupled nicely with her skin tone and her short, tan heels. The pastel colors of her appearance made her vivid green eyes look even more brilliant.

"A suggestion?" Naraku offered, eyeing her hair.

"Sure." Jade shrugged. He walked over to his suitcase and unzipped the pocket that held his hair products. Grabbing a comb and a hairpin, Naraku walked back to Jade. He slipped the thin handle of the comb along her scalp and flipped a section of her hair from the left side of her head to her right, finding an off-center part that her hair would agree with. He combed the hair into place and the slipped the hairpin in her bangs to keep the new part in place and to keep the hair out of her face.

"There," Naraku motioned toward the mirror. Jade stood in front of it and her expression lightened as her hand softly stroked her hair.

"I think that's what was bothering me. Thanks." Jade said.

"Never neglect your hair." he told her with a grin, now standing behind her. "It's your real fashion statement, not your clothes."

"Yes, Hair Daddy."

"I despise you."

Naraku tucked the protective container holding his poster under his arm, watching as Jade pointed out every marijuana dispensary she saw as they walked to the building where the conference was being held. She even took a few pictures of the dispensaries. Naraku assumed she sent them as taunts to her friends.

 _'It's a good thing her poster is protected.'_ Naraku thought wryly, watching as she picked the black cylindrical container up for a fourth time after trying to juggle it, her phone, and her excitement all at once.

"Good thing I have this," Jade chirped, tapping the container. Naraku simply shook his head and kept walking. He didn't bother trying to keep pace with Jade, who was either twenty steps ahead of him or twenty steps behind him to look at various shops. He was genuinely shocked that she wasn't cartwheeling and singing, "Wheee!"

"I assume you've never been to Colorado?" Naraku asked, though this was a first for him, too. It was on his list of places he wanted to visit, but he always found a reason to stay home and work, either at his previous jobs or in the lab.

"I have, just not since it legalized marijuana." Jade called back. "Which is weird, now that I think about it. I live in northern New Mexico. I'm only a couple hours away from the border. Or I did before moving."

"New Mexico?" Naraku repeated.

"Yep. Born and raised." Jade replied.

"I've driven through New Mexico. It was boring."

"Southern half?"

"Yes."

"There's your problem." Jade giggled.

"Hah," Naraku caught himself smiling, but he let it go.

 **000000**

The conference reminded Jade of the video tournaments she would attend every year. The building had been a former factory, but was used by the locals for holding large events such as this one. At the south end of the building, tables were set up in rows, but with plenty of spaces between them to allow walking and standing space. Each table held two posters and for the most part, people from the same schools teamed up, including Naraku and herself. The north end of the building was saved for a long table with light foods such as deli meats, fruits, vegetables, and some sweet snacks sitting on top. The remaining space was occupied by a stage.

She had a few people approach her and listen to her describe the phosphorus and nitrogen levels of a portion of this lake. She was able to answer most questions and some she could only answer half-way, but that was better than bombing completely. Naraku had trained her well in the two weeks leading up to this event. Her last audience was two girl students who looked even younger than her and a woman, a professor, with thirty years of experience and ten of them being dedicated to the effects of agriculture on different environments, or so she said. She listened to Jade intently. The only word Jade could use to describe her was, "sharp." She was tall, thin, and wearing a casual gray suit that seemed to make her sharper along her shoulders, elbows, and knees. At the end of her explanation, the sharp lady reached out and shook her hand, gave her a business card, and told her she did a good job and that she hoped to see Jade at more conferences. Jade was not as enthusiastic about attending more of them.

Naraku, on the other hand, was thriving in this environment. Naraku spoke to almost four times the amount Jade spoke to at a time. From Jade's experience, he didn't speak much and when he did, it was to be vindictive and manipulative, but he was different here. He talked a lot and his tone was excited. If someone had a question, he had an answer. If someone suggested something, he explained why he didn't use that suggestion. He didn't insult anyone or threaten them. His chuckles were genuine, his eyes were alert and alive, and his smile was contagious.

 _'If he was like this all the time, I would actually consider dating him...not that he would agree to it.'_ Jade bit her lips together and inhaled deeply. _'Okay, he's very handsome right now, but I know better.'_ She wished her body would listen to her brain when it came down to these types of situations. She hoped admitting it would make it better, but it didn't. So, she turned away from him and focused on his words instead...except his deep voice was as equally attractive as the rest of him. Jade started silently reciting the horrible things he said to her over the five-month period she had been exposed to him, but she was drawn back into his world when he began explaining his process of estimating the amounts of each microbe.

 _'How can one human being be so smart?'_ Jade wondered. It was a group of twelve listening to Naraku; three she assumed were professors or experts and the rest were students. They all held curious expressions, as if Naraku was the only expert and professor. A few of them even scribbled notes into their notebooks.

"Why are they purple?" an older man asked.

"I'm not sure. Finding out why is a new goal that I've added to my overall project." Naraku answered. "At this point, the only abnormalities I've found are the high phosphorus and nitrogen levels in the lake itself." he continued, pointing at Jade's poster. She smiled and waved and choked back a groan.

 _'Don't send them over here. I'm going to sound so stupid after you.'_ she wanted to say. She hoped her eyes said enough, but it seemed Naraku had forgotten she existed.

"Everything else is normal?" the old man pressed.

"About as normal as you can expect from an anoxic, brackish lake," Naraku replied.

"Huh. I've heard of cases of microbes changing color due to their environment or exposure to different minerals. Perhaps you'll discover something later."

"I hope so." Naraku exhaled with a smile. Jade was taken aback by that. It was another rare moment of a genuine human emotion from him. He crossed his arms, listening to the group in front of him discuss possible reasons for the odd colorings. Jade looked around to make sure no one was approaching her, but the crowds were beginning to thin out.

 _'The more attention he draws, the less I have to speak. He's actually explaining my poster for me.'_ Jade reminded herself. The competitive part of her wanted to take the challenge, but she knew she had no chance against Naraku. He could make dirt sound interesting. Jade sighed away her competitive impulses.

"You're quiet." he said to her after his audience dispersed. "You need to practice speaking to people face-to-face."

"Let's see; listen to the guy with the fancy purple microscopic lifeforms or listen to the chick talking about phosphorus levels in a dead lake?"

"Also nitrogen, and it's nearly dead, not completely."

"I'm being a smart-ass."

"I am aware." he replied, smiling widely. Jade stared at him. He looked so...happy. It was a strange sight to accept; one she wished she could see more of. His eyes were lit up with excitement and his face wasn't pulled into an emotionless or sadistic expression. Naraku tilted his head; a child-like innocence flashed across his face. "What?"

"I was waiting for you to retaliate."

"I wouldn't do that to you here; there are witnesses." he said dryly as his smile morphed into a malicious grin. Jade smiled back.

"There it is."

"Don't tempt me, woman." Naraku wagged his finger at her, but he turned when he heard someone behind him call out, "Sir?" A handful of people were now standing in front of him again. Jade stifled a yawn and exhaled heavily as Naraku dove back into Science World without her.

Before too long, Jade began wiggling side-to-side in place and absentmindedly stroking her soft dress. The poster portion of the conference was coming to a close. Many people were preparing themselves for the bigger presentations that were going to begin within the hour on stage. Jade felt a hand land on her shoulder and stopped moving.

"Are you bored?" Naraku asked.

"Kind of. This isn't as bad as I thought it would be." Jade replied. She then pointed at the stage where the projector and speakers were being set up. "Will you end up doing something like that?"

"Yes. They save the stage portion for projects that are completely done. So, after I present my finalized thesis to the committee at school, I will attend another conference to present all of my findings and conclusions."

"Sweet. I keep getting cards from different professors. Is that good?" she asked, waving the five personal business cards she had received from multiple professors interested in her "work." Naraku leaned over, slipped the business cards he was given from his pocket, and spread them out between hands in a fan-like shape. He had triple the amount Jade had.

"It can be." Naraku said. "Most of the time, the professors are just advertising. The more grad students they have, the more funding they receive for their own research. It can be politically motivated, too."

"Oh." Jade sighed, lowering her cards.

"You're better off sticking with Bruce for your Master's. Then you can go elsewhere."

"Okay."

"I think we're safe to abandon our posters." he said, pointing at the other end of the room where various foods and drinks resided. Jade trotted excitedly to the table as Naraku followed with less enthusiasm. After filling their plates, they found a spot against a nearby wall away from the crowd and sat on the floor, munching away. Jade finished her food first and began to snatch grapes from Naraku's plate. He caught her wrist on the third grape and pulled it from her grip. She simply snatched another and plopped it in her mouth quickly.

"Quit eating mine." Naraku demanded.

"No." Jade replied, pulling out her phone. "Oh, Sango sent a picture of Hanger Dan,"

"Every time you call him that, I'm going to think of a different way to slowly stress you out until your heart stops beating."

"Okay, Daddy." Jade turned her phone sideways and showed Naraku the picture of his guinea pig sitting peacefully in Sango's lap. "He looks happy."

"He's a guinea pig; they have a constant look of terror on their faces." Naraku argued coolly.

"Is that why you like him?" Jade asked smugly.

"Perhaps." Naraku answered, finishing off his last piece of deli meat. He glanced at Jade, who was staring back at him. "What?"

"You didn't give me a bullshit answer. I'm shocked." Jade said back. Naraku's expression darkened.

"I won't do it again." Naraku replied evenly. He stared her down and she matched him as best as she could, but she began giggling. Naraku refrained from headbutting her. When he looked away, she laughed harder.

"Oh, Naraku, come on,"

"I didn't say anything."

"Your eyes spoke for you. I'm just teasing you, dude." Jade insisted.

"I don't like it."

"You do it to me."

"Stop me."

"Oh, well, how about you stop me?" Jade winked. "Daddy."

"I'll remember this." Naraku said as he stood up to discard his trash. He grit his teeth harder when Jade began chanting, "Daddy," while following him.

Naraku chose a chair on the outskirts of the audience and Jade sat beside him. While waiting for the first live presentation to begin, Naraku started a game of Hangman with Jade in his notebook. The word he chose was only three letters long, and Jade had guessed the letter 'E,' which was the second letter, but her next two guesses were wrong.

"How about, "L?" Jade suggested, thinking the word was, "Leg." She cursed under her breath when he wrote the letter down on the dreaded list of denial while drawing the second leg of the stick person.

"You're thinking too hard about this." Naraku said.

"It's you. I have to."

"Ah, but I already know that, so I've chosen the simpler route."

"Fucking…"S?"" Jade spat, thinking the word was, "Sex," this time. To her surprise, Naraku scribbled the letter in the third slot.

"Lucky guess. I know what you thought it was." he laughed.

"Yes." Jade chirped, tapping the remaining empty slot. He wrote the "Y" and handed the notebook to Jade. She took a moment to think of a word.

 _'Alright, a word Naraku wouldn't think of...friendship?'_

"English." Naraku reminded her.

"I know." Jade drew four lines. She figured the word, "Glow," would get some mileage.

"E," Naraku guessed. Jade wrote the letter to the side and drew the head. "A,"

"Nope." Jade chirped, scribbling the letter down and drawing the body.

"Astonishing," Naraku announced, raising an eyebrow. "You're even terrible at drawing stick figures. How are you so good at being so terrible?"

"I don't know. How are you so good at being so horrible?"

"Practice and plenty of life experiences." he responded with a faint hint of a smile. "O,"

"Yep." Jade wrote the letter in the third slot and waited.

"F,"

"Nope."

"It's glow." he said so quickly that Jade hadn't even finished drawing a line for the arm. His deep chuckles made her shake her head while her cheeks filled with heat. She was pretty sure his chuckles would haunt her until she died. She preferred the giggles she elicited from him the night they got high together. He was pleasant then and he was pleasant when she hung out with him a couple of weeks prior.

 _'He has something good under all of that bitterness. I've seen it.'_ Jade told herself. The images of the sketched woman surfaced in her mind again. She had to have been important to him. Why else would he sketch her into his book of flowers? Her eyes found his face, which was restrained once more. Naraku the Science Enthusiast was gone and Naraku the Guarded was back. He had crossed one leg over the other and was reading something on his phone. Instantly, his body tensed up as his lips turned downward. The look in his eyes stuck a cold blade through her gut, expelling all warmth from her. _'Why is he angry?'_

Once he bared his teeth in a rageful snarl, he swiftly stood and stormed off without saying a word. Jade looked around, unsure of what to do. She knew better than to attempt to console or even communicate with him, but she also knew how important the conference was to him. He had spent hours practicing his speeches to her and even more time explaining material to her so she could understand what she was talking about. Jade waited a few minutes, but Naraku had disappeared from sight.

 _'I guess I'll go find him.'_ Jade reluctantly stood from her chair, placing her notebook in her seat and Naraku's in his before going in the general direction he headed in. A few people nodded their heads at her and she nodded back. Jade knew the look on her face was drawing attention to her, but she walked fast, with a purpose, hoping it would discourage anyone from approaching her. She continued walking along the wall until she found the narrow hallway which led to the bathrooms. She stood at the men's bathroom door, listening. She could hear water running.

"Naraku," she called out, knocking on the door. Her face flushed with the heat of embarrassment. What if he wasn't in there and someone else was? What if he was in there and someone else was, too? He certainly wouldn't answer her with witnesses. Swallowing her doubts, she knocked again. "I know you're upset. I'll leave you alone after you answer me and tell me you'll be okay."

"I'm fine. Now go." he replied quickly and bitterly. Jade's mouth dropped open. He actually answered her?

"Okay." Jade sighed.

The walk back to her seat was awkward. Taking extensive notes for Naraku and herself was awkward. Sitting through two presentations for two hours with no sign from Naraku was awkward. Every time Jade typed up a text to send him, she deleted it. Naraku was not the type to accept any kind of pity, and she was the largest source of pity in his life, she suspected, so she was the last person he wanted to hear from. She understood that completely. But, she also didn't know anyone else. She wasn't familiar with the town. And whether anyone believed her or not, Naraku was occasionally fun to be around. He was a challenge. He forced her to think quickly. A part of her was looking forward to having fun with him.

Her phone vibrated. Naraku messaged her.

 ** _'Go find something to do. I'm going to be gone for a while, so leave me alone.'_** his message read.

"Okay." Jade whispered. She wanted to experience a dispensary, so she decided to visit the first one she saw.

000000

Jade stared at her phone; the email she had just finished typing up staring back at her. A moment ago, telling Bruce what happened with Naraku seemed like a good idea, but now it felt like one of the worst things she could do. Bruce was their professor, but Naraku despised Bruce and the power he held over him. Involving him would be like dumping gasoline on a wildfire.

 _'I wish he would respond to me.'_ Jade placed her phone face-down after deleting the email. Naraku hadn't replied to her since telling her to leave him alone. She understood him wanting to be alone, but she wanted to know he was fine, or as fine as Naraku could be. Jade suspected Naraku's default mental state involved him dancing madly on the lip of a volcano. _'Should I try my cannabis chocolate to relax? They said it's strong, though. I might not be able to function tomorrow.'_

Another hour passed and the sun was nearly hidden behind the mountains. Jade had turned on the room's main lights and the lamp on the nightstand between both beds. She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, writing the last portion of notes Bruce sent with her to give her the needed boost to finally catch up with the class. His O-Chem midterm was scheduled the previous day, but Bruce was going to let her take it Monday. Once she did, she was officially caught up. Even though she only had two actual classes this semester, Organic Chemistry alone was worth the workload of almost three classes.

 _'I'm glad Bruce is funny, otherwise we would've become alcoholics by week two.'_ Jade giggled, but it was a pitiful giggle. A loud bang echoed through the room and Jade jumped to her feet beside the bed, both hands pressed to her heaving chest.

"What the fu-" she breathed. The door swung open and Naraku's tall form sauntered into the room. He dropped his card key on the floor and made his way to the table next to the window. Jade saw him place a bottle on the table and from the loud clang, she assumed it was a bottle of alcohol. Naraku had both hands planted on the table, his head hung down and his face hid behind the black curtain of his long hair. He was leaned over the table almost to the point of collapsing on it.

 _'Great. He's hammered.'_ Jade realized. His chuckles made her stomach churn.

"You're quiet." Naraku said aloud. "No warm welcome?"

"I thought you didn't want me to talk to you." Jade reminded him. He finally lifted his head.

"I didn't." he agreed, taking hold of the bottle again and twisting the cap off. He took three long gulps and Jade found herself cringing. He needed to stop!

"Naraku, we still have a conference to go-"

"Not anymore!" he announced as he spun around to look at her. His smile was wide; it was almost a snarl, and his eyes were glossed over with exhaustion and rage. The perfect, powerful appearance he worked so hard to maintain was now disheveled and defeated. His shirt was halfway unbuttoned and she hoped the dark red stains splattered on his chest and sleeves were wine.

"What do you mean not anymore?" Jade asked with a frown, clasping her hands together to stop them from shaking. Suddenly, Naraku erupted into wild laughter! It made Jade jump and flinch, her fingers squeezing around each other almost to their breaking point. She had seen him angry, sleep deprived, cold; this was different. He tilted the bottle towards his mouth and dumped another round down his throat, still snickering and giggling with terrifying delight. He suppressed a couple of coughs, shaking his head.

 _'I need help! I don't know what to do!'_ Jade eyes darted to locate her phone on her bed. It was almost on the other side. She would have to almost crawl on the high-sitting bed to reach it!

"You seem preoccupied, Jade." Naraku chuckled and was now approaching her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm still confused." she admitted to him, watching him carefully. He stopped a few feet away from her.

"I'm confused, dear." he told her, poking his chest harshly and frowning at her. Jade noticed the wine he was drinking was purple, so it didn't match the stains on his shirt.

 _'I need to choose my words carefully.'_ Jade looked down briefly and lowered her hands from her chest to her abdomen, though they remained clasped.

"What happened?" she asked softly, nodding at the red spots on his right sleeve. His eyes narrowed and he stepped forward.

"You're scared of me."

"I-I'm concerned," Jade insisted, unlocking her fingers and holding her hands out to stop him from coming closer. It only seemed to encourage him. Her hands were now pressing against his stomach. It took everything in her power to lower her hands and look up at him with a straight face.

"A drink?" he asked, holding the bottle out to her. Jade shook her head and Naraku arched an eyebrow, but then he shrugged and took a drink for her. Jade grit her teeth.

"You're super lit right now. Maybe you should stop drinking." Jade suggested.

"Heh, why? Why would I? Why should I?" Naraku downed two more gulps of the wine, turned around and headed back towards the table. "My thesis is obsolete now. Everything I have worked for, everyone I have spoken to, convincing the authorities to allow these samples to cross international waters, roping you in as my assistant, hours, days, MONTHS of my life - wasted! Hahahaha, absolutely wasted! I should be wasted alongside all of it!" His wild laugh sent chills down Jade's spine. A part of her had always wanted to see him snap, to watch him get a taste of his own medicine, but now she regretted ever entertaining the thought.

"Hey, we still have to show up tomorrow anyway," Jade insisted as she approached him slowly. He grimaced, cringing as if in pain, but then he straightened his posture and chuckled.

"Think twice before touching me or reaching for the bottle," he said with a charming smile.

 _'Oh my God, he's broken! He's broken and I'm stuck with him in a hotel in a completely different state!'_ Jade stopped advancing and looked down at the floor, thinking about her next move thoroughly. She figured leaving the room was her best bet, but Naraku had stepped forward again and sighed heavily.

"I'm not going to hurt you." he told her. "I'll stop drinking."

"You do you. I'm going to grab something to eat from the lobby. Want anything?" Jade asked, turning and dodging his hand when he reached out to touch her face. She grabbed her wallet and pulled on her shoes. To her surprise, he didn't stop her. He just stood in place, staring at her and frowning.

"Why are you leaving me?" he asked with confusion.

"I just said I'm grabbing some food." Jade repeated, knowing she had a concerned expression etched onto her face now. She needed to leave before she lost her composure. "Do you want anything?" Naraku stared at her a bit longer, placing the bottle on the TV stand beside him and slowly walking to his bed.

"No. Just come back." he answered after collapsing on his back.

"Okay." Jade replied in a small voice. It wasn't like she could really go anywhere else.

Jade could not leave the room fast enough. Once she confirmed that she had her key card to open the door and retrieved her phone, she nearly flew out into the hallway. She waited for the elevator, glancing back at the door to make sure he didn't decide to follow her. The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, tapping the button for the lobby.

 _'I can't really blame him for being upset if he really can't work on his thesis anymore.'_ Jade frowned and bit her lips together. _'He scared me, though.'_

The lobby's convenient store was open all day, every day, much to Jade's delight. She truly wasn't hungry; she just needed to leave Naraku alone long enough for him to pass out. Her eyes rolled when she realized she was going to be dealing with a very sick and irritable man in the morning. She picked up a bag of potato chips, but then placed them back on the shelf. She did the same with a few candy bars and sandwiches, becoming more and more disappointed each time.

"Are you looking for something in particular?" the cashier, an older woman with graying brown hair, asked. She was short, stout; she reminded Jade of Mama. She would have given anything for Mama to have been there. She would know what to say.

"Not really. Just browsing." Jade answered.

"Just let me know, then." the woman replied, turning around to continue her cleaning.

'I'm just not as hungry as I used to be.' she thought, scratching her head. 'I also haven't smoked weed in a while, so that might have something to do with it.'

After finally deciding on a ripe green apple, Jade sat down at one of the tables inside the store. She scrolled through different sites, snickering to herself when she found funny comments. She bit off a few chunks of the apple, winced when she was slightly overwhelmed by the sourness, and then finally chewed and swallowed. She found a discussion board where people were complaining about the stupid shit customers say or do to retail/food service workers and found herself giggling profusely at quite a few comments that revealed that customers said and did the exact same shit across the world without fail.

 _'I miss delivering. I miss dealing with stupid customers with Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku. I miss hanging out with them behind the building.'_ Jade's eyes teared up suddenly. She quickly wiped them away with her sleeve, reminding herself that she would be able to go back to work soon. It was better to wait and heal than to go back and suffer. Her thumb dragged up against the screen until she found new comments she hadn't read yet. The chair across from her quickly and loudly moved, causing Jade to jump in her seat and lean back.

"You said you were coming back." Naraku said accusingly, plopping down in the chair. He rested both elbows on the table, holding his head in his hands as he stared at her tiredly.

"I'm eating." Jade huffed, locking her phone and placing it face down on the table. His eyes closed as he mulled over her answer.

"You could have brought it back to the room."

"Look," she began, holding her hand up to stop him. "You're very upset, so I'm just trying to give you some space."

"I didn't ask for space this time."

"Naraku," Jade complained, lightly pressing her hand on her forehead.

"Jade," he mocked.

"Not now, okay? If you want to self-destruct, go somewhere else. I'll be up to go to bed in about twenty minutes." Jade responded sternly, surprised that she was able to keep her voice steady. "Can you survive twenty minutes without me?" The drunken man had sat back in the chair, now staring at the floor and holding onto the seat to steady himself. His expression darkened.

"I cannot sleep." he replied gently.

"The alcohol hasn't hit you yet."

"No, you don't understand,"

"I'll compromise; silence until I finish eating." Jade responded quickly. He didn't look at her, but he nodded. Biting the apple harshly, Jade unlocked her phone to continue reading the comments, but the damage was done. Her mood was more sour than the apple and reading about stupid customers wasn't even remotely funny anymore. She sighed heavily and placed her phone face down on the table again, shaking her head as she looked away.

 _'To be honest, I don't know how he's conscious, let alone sitting up.'_ Jade admitted silently, occasionally glancing at her drunken partner. He would sway slightly, his head would nod forward, but he didn't fall. She reached the apple's core, but continued to nibble on it as much as possible. Her eyes kept falling back on the dark red stains on his light blue shirt.

"Are you scared of me now?" he asked suddenly, finally looking at her. His expression was different from his usual ones. He almost seemed worried. Jade was skeptical, but there was no use in lying. Naraku smelled blood in the water.

"Well, I'm definitely not comfortable with you right now," she replied, slowly tapping her finger on the table. She figured sugar-coating her answers was the best route to take for now.

"I won't hurt you."

"You threatened me." Jade said plainly. When she saw him frown and tilt his head to the side, she realized that he had forgotten about it entirely. A good thing or an insult? She wasn't sure.

"I have before."

"Even when you're drunk," Jade whined, quickly rising to her feet to discard her apple core. She began walking across the lobby, but she stopped and waited for him to catch up.

The trip back to their room was quiet, but Jade didn't feel any tension from Naraku anymore, which was a huge relief. She figured he had already forgotten what happened. Jade kicked her shoes off, crawled onto her bed, turned out the light, and plugged her phone in before snuggling beneath the covers. She really wanted to read more funny stories, but she didn't want to keep Naraku awake with her snorts and giggles.

"Jade," he called out quietly from his bed.

"Yeah?" she answered with a sigh.

"I don't want to sleep. Keep me awake."

"You're going to be so fucked up tomorrow."

"I'm not going tomorrow." he replied dejectedly.

"What?" Jade, held her head up. She could see his faint outline in the dim moonlight that crept from behind the partially closed curtains. He had his back turned to her. He was still wearing his dress clothes and he hadn't even bothered to remove his shoes.

"I'm not going. There is no reason to."

"We can see other people's stuff."

"Fuck them." Naraku bit back. "I am better than all of them; their projects mean nothing."

"Okay. I'll go alone." Jade replied dismissively. "You should still rest, though."

"Why do you care?" he asked, but not rudely. He sounded confused.

"I don't want you to be miserable. Is that okay?" Jade asked back. She heard the sound of fabric rubbing together as Naraku shifted his position. He remained silent.

 _'Does he think I hate him? I guess I've joked about it a few times. Maybe he took it to heart.'_ Jade rolled onto her side and closed her eyes. Her body grew heavy, her mind began to fog with sleepiness, and before she slipped away completely, she heard a loud sniffle.

Her dreams weren't terrifying anymore. She hadn't dreamt of the beach or the black water washing ashore for a while. This time, it was a sea of grass, most of the blades taller than she was, and she was running through them while giggling, listening to Aunt Rosa shouting at her to come back and Mama telling her to leave Jade alone. Her two cousins were asking Aunt Rosa if they could join her. She sat on a large boulder, playing her Gameboy quietly. A brook of water curved around the boulder, gurgling softly. It was a warm day and not a cloud was in the sky. A few beads of sweat dropped onto her Gameboy's screen, so she wiped the screen on her jeans and continued playing. The sun was directly overhead and the day was only growing warmer. The batteries in her Gameboy were going to die eventually and it was unbearably hot now. She looked around for the nearest spot of shade.

 _'Too warm,'_ Jade thought. She peeled her blankets off, but brushed against an arm...his arm! Jade blinked several times, waiting for her mind to catch up. His arm was draped over her! Naraku's body was close enough for Jade to reconsider her life choices.

"Dude, what the fuck are you doing in my bed?" she asked harshly, but he was so deep in his sleep that Jade actually checked if he was breathing before grabbing his hand and letting it fall wherever behind her. He didn't budge. She poked his chest harshly, but it didn't matter; Naraku's consciousness had ascended to the drunken astral plane.

 _'Note to self; only smoke weed with Naraku.'_ Jade slid out of her bed and decided to use his unoccupied one. She used her phone's flashlight to make sure the bed was clear of any expelled liquids before hopping into it.

"Don't leave," Naraku mumbled.

"I'm not le-"

"Kikyou," he whimpered.

 _'This was a terrible, awful idea,'_ Jade scolded herself. She was the one who suggested they both suck it up and share a room this one time and now she was the one complaining. She inhaled through her nose deeply, trying to calm her nerves. He hadn't done anything. He handled her during her meltdown, so she felt like she owed him a moment of weakness without judgment. Her thoughts drifted back to what he had just whispered. What was a kikyou? Keek-yo? It didn't sound like any words she knew in English or Spanish.

 _'Maybe it's Japanese. I'll have to ask Sango or Kagome.'_

 **000000**

 _'My head is going to explode.'_ Naraku winced. His stomach was roiling angrily and his entire body weighed several tons. Carefully, he opened his eyes, but even though the curtains had been closed entirely, the dim light showing through was enough to burn his eyes. He turned his head and saw a bagel on a plate, a bottle of water, and sitting on a napkin was a small square of white chocolate. There was also a note sitting beside it. He grabbed it and inhaled sharply. The movement was upsetting his stomach more.

 ** _'I'm going to the conference. The "chocolate" should help with the headache and nausea.'_**

"Hm." Naraku plucked the chocolate from the napkin and bit off a small chunk to test the taste first. It had a mild sweetness and it was already melting from the heat of his fingers. He ate the rest of the chocolate and closed his eyes for a moment. Then his eyes shot open.

'I'm on Jade's bed!' he realized. He checked his hands and arms, almost expecting them to have begun to rot if he had touched her. Did he touch her? Did she move to his bed? Or did she just let him touch her like she usually did?

"Whatever." he grumbled, reaching over for the bagel. He was too sick to care.

Naraku was able to sit up after twenty minutes of painstakingly chewing through half of the bagel. It was easier to drink the water than to eat, so he finished the water sooner. Pressing his hand against his throbbing stomach, he slid onto his feet and slowly shuffled to the bathroom and pressed the entire front side of his body against the cool wall. When the wave of nausea washed away, he quickly shed his clothes and stepped into the shower. The warm water began wash away the sweat his body had accumulated. He could feel the headache rinsing away with it along with the heaviness of his exhaustion. He assumed the "chocolate" had digested.

Once he finished showering, he grabbed his dirty clothes and carried them over to his suitcase. He saw the spots of red on his shirt and frowned with irritation. They had already dried; removing them was going to be a bitch.

 _'What are they? Wine?'_ he wondered. He held a spot to his nose and inhaled. Naraku quickly dropped the shirt on his bed. Blood. Striding back into the bathroom, Naraku began to inspect his body for any cuts, scrapes, or stabs. His nose and mouth had no injuries or dried blood, either. He did find a bruise on his lower back. It was turning blue, meaning it was fresh. It was about the size of a fist.

"I don't remember fighting anyone." he murmured, though he had to admit his memory of the previous day was fragmented.

 _'I didn't hurt Jade...did I?'_ he froze in place, remembering the dream he had a few weeks before. Naraku found his phone hiding in the pocket of his pants and sent her a message, asking if he touched her. Naraku decided to finish his cleaning routine while waiting for a reply. He was halfway done with drying and brushing his hair when Jade returned from the conference. She nodded a silent greeting as she walked up to him and placed a few pieces of paper on the desk in front of him. He instantly recognized her neat, dark handwriting.

"What are these?" Naraku asked, turning the dryer off.

"I went to two other presentations and took notes for you. I am your assistant." she answered, unbuttoning her light yellow blouse and tossing it onto her bed. She had a matching cami on underneath. Naraku turned back around and continued drying his hair. Jade had pulled her faded jeans and plain green T-shirt back on, now sitting cross-legged on her bed and texting on her phone. Naraku stood and clamped his towel around his waist. "Want me to leave the room?" she asked.

"You've seen me before," he answered. Jade huffed and toppled over on her side with her back facing him. "You're not interested?"

"I was hoping you would be quieter."

"You fed me marijuana. There is no hope." Naraku chuckled.

"Speaking of, did it help?"

"Yes." he replied, buckling his belt. He pulled a light lilac dress shirt over his tank top, but he left it unbuttoned as he strolled over to Jade. "Did I do anything to you last night?"

"You annoyed me." Jade said dryly, looking up at him calmly.

"No, in bed."

"You annoyed me."

"You're not helping. Did you read my text?"

"You had your arm over me. So I switched beds. No big deal." Jade explained uncaringly. "I did get your text. You did touch me, but not in a bad way, if that's what you're wondering."

"I don't-"

"You were fucked up, I understand." she interrupted. "I'm cool. I won't tell anyone."

"It was that bad?"

"I'm going to record myself telling the story of you cuddling me and upload it to YouTube."

"I will drop it." Naraku insisted quickly. She slowly nodded at him with a tight-lipped smirk. Naraku crossed his arms and looked away.

"That purple is a good color on you."

"It's lilac."

"I'm not only going to tell the story and upload it, but I'm going to tell everyone your name."

"Th- I respect your opinion on my appearance." Naraku said begrudgingly.

"Haha, good enough." Jade giggled, sitting up. His eyes met hers.

"What do you want?"

"Huh?"

"You're holding it over my head, so what do you want from me?"

"Nothing, really. Just don't play mind games with me and I won't with you." Jade retorted. "And learn to take a compliment." Naraku rolled his eyes as he walked over to his bed and crawled on top of it, planting his face into a pillow.

 _'I should slap her.'_ he thought bitterly, but he grit his teeth as his chest tightened. He exhaled forcefully. _'I don't want to.'_

"Hey, did you get in a fight or something? What were those stains on your shirt?" Jade asked as she stood up from her bed. Naraku was glad his face was smashed into the pillow.

"Wine." he answered, his voice muffled.

"But you weren't drinking red wine when you came back last night."

"I imagine I drank more than that before I returned."

"You don't remember?"

"Would you?" Naraku retorted, lifting his head and turning to look at her. "I started off drinking red wine; I remember that much."

"Makes sense. I think I'm going to go check out some stores." Jade announced, grabbing her wallet and pocketing her phone. Naraku waited for her to leave before slipping into his shoes and following her. He stepped onto the elevator with her and looked away when she smiled up at him.

 _'She's mocking me. There is no way she's enjoying my company.'_

"Oh, come on. I'm not going to tell anyone." she insisted. "Quit pouting."

"I'm not pouting."

"Stooooooop." Jade begged dryly. Naraku turned his head to glare at her and then poked her on the side of the head sharply. She flinched and held her hand to the spot. "Every time you react like that, I'm going to assume I'm right."

 _'You are.'_ Naraku smirked at her.

Naraku's sunglasses did little to negate the daylight from burning his sensitive, hungover eyes, but he dealt with it by closing his eyes and staying behind Jade. He had her pace memorized and would occasionally open an eye to make sure he wasn't going to run into anything. Jade had her hands stuffed into her pockets, staring at each little shop they passed, hoping to spot something interesting.

He followed her into every store she wanted to visit, found the darkest part of the store to hover in to wait for her to finish browsing. She asked him twice why he decided to go with her, but he didn't quite know why himself. Was the marijuana chocolate making things seem like good ideas? Had the rage he felt from learning about his de-authorization from his project, his brain-child, been so great that it burned away some of his inhibitors? Was Jade just that pleasant?

"Do you want a drink?" she asked him, pointing to a local snack shop promoting their homemade lemonades, teas, and coffees. He nodded and followed her into the shop. They both ordered tea; Jade with oolong and Naraku with mint tea. Before Naraku could pull out his wallet, Jade paid for both, turning and handing him his cup.

"You didn't have to."

"I wanted to." she replied. He motioned for her to take the lead while sipping the tea. His eyebrows rose. The tea actually tasted good. It was warm, smooth, and the mint wasn't overpowering the taste of the green tea. The shop owners must have had a great amount of experience with brewing. "Damn. This tastes awesome." Jade quipped, taking a longer drink from her cup after choosing a table to enjoy their drinks with. Naraku sat across from her and nodded.

"Indeed. I wish we had something similar back home." Naraku agreed, but he silently scolded himself. Why was he being pleasant now? He was pissed!

 _'But not at her. She didn't do anything.'_ he told himself. He imagined he tormented her enough the previous night.

"So, you didn't really explain what happened. You just said you're not allowed to work on your thesis anymore."

"That's essentially it." Naraku said quickly. "They have ordered me to send everything back to them."

"Did they say why? It's your thesis; how can they say you're not allowed to work on it?"

"It's restricted, so they agreed to let me count and extract everything I could. They also agreed to fund me since I was performing processes they haven't done yet. Or, I'm guessing, they could not, for whatever reason. They did not tell me why they're ruining me; just that they're ruining me."

"Oh." Jade took a long drink, her brows furrowed together. Naraku could tell she was thinking of what to say.

 _'She feels bad for me? Why? There is nothing about me to sympathize with.'_

"Is there anything I can do?" she finally asked after a few moments of silence. Naraku shook his head and she nodded. "What now? Can you not get your degree anymore?"

"I can. To earn my degree without a thesis, I need to take a few extra classes. Without a thesis, I cannot even hope to be accepted into the Ph.D program I want."

"There aren't other programs?"

"I don't settle." Naraku told her.

"Assholes. The least they could have done was give you a reason." Jade grumbled while pouting.

"That is the least of my worries. They pulled my funding, which paid a chunk of my bills. I had to quit my job for this."

"I'm sorry, dude." Jade's hand reached for his arm, but she pulled it back quickly.

"Why? It isn't your problem." Naraku remarked, ignoring what she tried to do.

"You're so predictable." Jade giggled. "I feel bad for you."

"Is that why you're laughing?"

"I'm laughing at your inability to accept my sympathy."

"I don't need your sympathy."

"Okaaaaay." she sang uncertainly.

"That reminds me, have you heard anything more about the crystals on your muscle tears?" Naraku asked, taking a drink.

"How did the thesis stuff remind you of-"

"Sympathy." Naraku interrupted her sharply. He had developed a bad habit of forgetting how keen she was on sensing his bullshit.

"Oh, uh, they're dissolving now, or they were when they checked me a few days ago. All of my tests are still normal." she answered with a smile. Naraku could tell she was relieved. He was, too. He hadn't made many foolish mistakes like that in his life, but when he did, they ended horribly.

 _'But this one is different; this one had a good outcome.'_ Naraku told himself, stirring the remainder of his mint tea with his straw. His eyes closed when he felt the nausea stirring in his stomach again.

When they finished their drinks, Jade decided she had browsed enough and was ready to return to the hotel. She mentioned wanting to play a game with a friend and enjoy a piece of her white chocolate, especially since it appeared to help Naraku with his severe hangover. He was pleasantly surprised with the chocolate, too. He still felt exhausted, but he could function.

"You want to play?" Jade asked him as she placed her laptop on the table.

"No." Naraku crawled onto his bed and sandwiched his head between two pillows to block out the light. He inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, focusing on the clicking of Jade's mouse and the tapping of her keys. The sounds were quick, rhythmic, and Jade spoke in a low voice about, "spotting three of them," and, "I need to make more armor." She giggled and snorted, but did so quietly. She clicked more, tapped more, and muttered, "Get fucked." A sigh, more clicking, and discussion of flanking the other team instead of meeting them head-on. Another giggle; it dragged on. Something exceptionally funny must have happened.

"Did you lose?" Naraku asked.

"Lose what, Naraku? I said I was lost, not that I lost something." she replied sweetly, but it wasn't Jade. Her voice was soft, filled with inflections; this one was spoken softly, but the voice was iron-strong.

"You shouldn't be here." Naraku told her, feeling a chill wrack his body.

"I know that. I'm lost." the voice responded. "Will you show me the way back home or are you going to mock me?"

"I've shown you the way before."

"So you will mock me,"

"I will do both." Naraku opened his eyes. A sea of green grass stretched out before him and he sat under a tree; one of many that created the border between the forest and the meadow. Standing beside him was a slender girl with long black hair contrasting against her pale skin. She wore simple light jeans and a pale yellow shirt. Naraku's heart stalled. "Kikyou,"

"Yes? Did you think I was someone else?" she asked with a smirk as she placed a hand on her hip. Naraku began to push himself up, but he stopped when Kikyou offered her other hand. Without a second thought, he took her hand and let her pull him to his feet.

"How is it you can find me, but not your house?"

"Are you implying something?" Kikyou pulled her long hair into a ponytail.

"I am implying that it's unlikely that you cannot find your house, which sits on a hill, but you can find me sitting in the middle of nowhere."

"You're always around this area. Once I'm in the forest, I know my way to this place, but not back to the trail. I get turned around too easily."

"Buy a compass." Naraku ordered dryly, now weaving between trees to find the trail.

"Finding you is free." Kikyou grinned when Naraku looked over his shoulder at her. Heat rose in his cheeks. "I assume you scored the highest on the test today."

"Of course. Too bad there isn't a class on yokai nonsense; you would be one of the highest scores." Naraku remarked, jumping down from a small ledge. Kikyou walked a few more steps to the left to descend gently.

"One?" she repeated curiously.

"I would still be the top student, but you would be decent competition."

"I see." Kikyou said, her tone laced with amusement. She walked past Naraku, who turned to grab her. His foot connected with something hard and Naraku hit the ground before he could realize what happened. He pushed himself up and looked around. He was alone.

"Kikyou," Naraku called out. Only the wind answered him. His eyes darted back and forth as he looked around. He ran around several trees, calling her name, but he received no answer from her. Turning on his heel, he ran back towards the grassy field. The wind appeared to urge him to run faster, blowing harder against his back. "Kikyou!" he shouted, bursting from the trees and and into the open field. He slowed to a jog, then to a walk, and then he stopped completely. No one. The sky had darkened and thunder rumbled in the distance.

"I'm alone." Naraku said aloud, looking down. "It's what I wanted anyway." The wind began to blast him, whipping his hair around his face wildly. He was content until she showed up! Everything was calm! The meadow was quiet!

 _'If it's what I wanted, then why I do I feel so miserable?'_ he asked himself. _'Why does my chest hurt so much whenever I think about her? Why do I feel so weak?'_ He sank to his knees, holding his head with both hands. It felt like knives were stabbing his chest! His breathing was erratic and no matter what he tried, what he told himself, it would not calm down. _'Why did she have to die?'_

"I didn't die, Naraku." she said. Naraku stopped moving and breathing when he felt her hand rest on his back, right over his scar. "I'm right here."

"You're dead." Naraku finally said, still not moving.

"I don't have to be if I don't want to be," Kikyou replied firmly. "If you don't want me to be,"

"That makes no sense! You are dead!" Naraku shouted, rearing up and gasping. Kikyou's skin was a charred mess; a cruel mix of red and black. Her silky black hair had mostly singed away, leaving a bloodied scalp with spots of bone. He pushed away from her and fell onto his back, his chest heaving with shock. His arms and legs no longer responded to his commands.

"I don't have to be." she repeated despite no longer having lips. She stood and began walking towards him. "Are you frightened of me?" Naraku squeezed his eyes shut.

"You're not real, you're not real, you're not real!" he chanted between desperate breaths. Her hands grasped his shoulders jarringly. He could feel the heat emanating from her cooked body.

"Are you going to leave me again?"

"Stop!" He heard her gasp and opened his eyes, recognizing the green ones staring back at him, wide with surprise.

"You were screaming in your sleep." Jade said in a small voice, her hands pulled to her chest. Naraku blinked a few more times before realizing his hands were clamped around her shoulders powerfully. He slowly pulled his hands away from her.

"You startled me." he told her, unable to look at her anymore.

"O-Okay. Was it really that bad of a dream?"

"I don't remember." he lied.

"Do you need some water? Food?"

"No. Go back to your game." he reclined onto his back slowly, now staring at the ceiling. He didn't feel her move off his bed for a few moments. He fought away the urge to look at her. He caught a glimpse of her when she finally stood and walked back to her laptop. A breath of relief left him when he heard her clicking away once more.

 _'She is dead. I saw her body.'_ he told himself. He wasn't sure if he was trying to comfort or guilt himself anymore. No matter how much he wished it to be a dream, Kikyou was dead. Nothing would change that. He felt his body start to sink into the bed. His eyes wouldn't open when he tried. _'I don't want to go back there. Wake up.'_

"Come back, Naraku. I'm all alone." she called to him. Naraku shot up in bed, inhaling sharply and panting.

"Are you sure you're okay? Maybe you shouldn't drink anymore...ever." Jade suggested skeptically, her expression showing a mix of concern and frustration.

"I'm fine." he said shakily, knowing he didn't sound the least bit convincing.

"If you talk about it, you might feel better." she suggested. His face must have had a terrible expression on it, because when he looked at her, she whispered an apology at him as she looked back at her laptop screen.

"Talking about it would change nothing, Jade." Naraku finally said as he stood up. He slipped his shoes on and walked out of the room.

Naraku walked into the lobby, hoping the brightly lit and noisy area would wake him up. Something was wrong. He could feel it in his gut. His body shuddered and he quickly strode to the couch of the lounge area before he lost his control. When his body connected with the cushion, he fell over on his side and closed his eyes. The feeling in his gut was the nausea returning in full force.

 _'Inhale through your nose and exhale from your mouth,'_ Naraku coached himself. He inhaled slowly, gently pressing his hand against the top of his abdomen. He was glad the couch was cold to counter the heat of his skin, but he knew it wouldn't last long. He wanted to take his dress shirt off, but any movement was going to cause him to vomit. His eyes were closed, so he tried to focus and listen to anything to keep his mind occupied.

"It should be sunny throughout today and the rest of the week, but the overnight temperatures will begin dropping, so make sure your jackets are ready in the evenings." the woman on TV stated. He assumed she was the weatherperson. She bantered with an anchor, a man with a smooth, perfect voice, who began his segment on local news updates. A woman's life was saved by a good samaritan who knew CPR, a thief was finally caught after two weeks on the run, and the ACS conference he and Jade attended was also a highlight, though he used the word, "silicone," when he should have used, "silicon," something that usually drove Naraku mad, but he couldn't be angry. He couldn't be upset. He certainly couldn't be happy. He learned his lesson about being happy the previous day. The anchor went on to talk about a fight that broke out at a local bar the previous night. Several men were involved, but only two were apprehended; the others had fled. Naraku smirked at that. He even snorted quietly. Jade's worried face flashed in his mind. His lips turned downward. She was scared of him now.

 _'Will she stop talking to me when we return home?'_ he wondered. It was the perfect storm for such a thing to happen. He no longer had anything to work on with her; just teaching the lab. She could shut him out almost entirely. Naraku felt his body give up and he lost consciousness.


	21. The Descent

**The Descent**

 **'3:47 AM'** The red numbers of the clock were the only source of light in his room. Naraku was on his stomach, stretched out, watching the time go by. He was exhausted. His fiery fury had been replaced with chilly bitterness.

 _'Bruce is delaying the process, but they won't agree to his terms. He should let me negotiate through him instead of forcing me to stand on the sidelines and watch him fuck it up.'_ he inhaled deeply through his nose. _'I won't let them have it.'_ He stood from his bed, giving up on the idea of sleep. He walked into his office and sat at his desk. His fingers lingered on the desk lamp switch, but they did not move. His eyes were fixated on the tubes.

"It's...glowing," Naraku whispered, gently lifting the third glass tube from the holster. He mixed a drop of the purple with a drop of the pink the night before. If Jade and her doctors could be believed, this substance attached to her injuries and helped heal them faster. He wanted to find out how, but as usual, one idea led to a thousand more questions. The mixture was clearly fluorescing now. Even his tired eyes couldn't mistake that property. Naraku flipped open his notebook and sat down to record this discovery. Now he knew these mysterious substances were meant for him to have and decipher. _'Even if Bruce fails with the negotiations, they won't get these back. They are mine...and Jade's. I made this with her blood and I made this all happen with mine.'_

"Hm," his eyes closed and when he realized he was having a difficult time opening them, he assumed his body was finally ready to sleep. He finished the entry in his notebook and dropped the pen.

Naraku collapsed forward onto his bed and sleep took him immediately. He could hear her exasperated sigh and when he opened his eyes, she was standing with him in the forest they explored together for years.

"Naraku," she began, closing her eyes. "I refuse to play your games. I will go home if you're in that bad of a mood."

"I'm not in a bad mood," he insisted with a laugh. To be honest, he didn't remember being angry. He didn't even remember how he ended up at that spot. Kikyou turned and began walking away. "What?" he asked, following her quickly.

"I told you I refuse to play your games. Until you are able to speak to me as a person and not a plaything, don't speak." Kikyou said evenly.

"You're misinterpreting-"

"Don't tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what you're doing." she interrupted quickly as she stopped walking to glare at him.

"I don't, though. Truly." Naraku told her in a soft voice.

"You're angry and instead of venting like a normal person, you bottle it up and then make fun of me and my interests."

"You think your interests are real, though." Naraku retorted as he looked away. He looked back at her when he heard a sniffle. Kikyou was pinching the bridge of her nose; her eyes were squeezed shut as they leaked a few tears. Naraku reached out and as soon as his fingers grazed her arm, she wrenched back from him.

"You aren't helping to convince me otherwise! You can be such a vile thing sometimes! I can't help but to think that you're possessed by some evil spirit! At least then your vileness makes sense!"

"I'm just an asshole."

Kikyou launched her book at his chest. It struck him harshly and landed in front of him with a thud. "My interests are the only thing keeping my parents from forbidding me to be around you! My interests are the only things keeping me from hating you!"

"Then hate me and allow your parents to forbid you from seeing me." Naraku said bitterly. "At the very least, you would no longer be lying to me about why you hang around me."

"You...are so...ugh!" Kikyou turned and stomped away, disappearing into the trees and the darkness of the oncoming night. Naraku watched her and when she was gone, only then did he realize he was frowning and clenching his hands into fists.

 _'That bitch,'_ Naraku exhaled slowly. _'I'm just an experiment to her.'_ Suddenly, his chest felt heavy. He knelt down and picked up her book, examining the page it had opened to when it fell to the ground. It had an ink drawing of a monstrous spider attacking a human monk. The Tsuchigumo; a spider that reached old age and became supernatural. It was deceptive, manipulative, and it often caused illness in humans before devouring them. The artwork was nicely done and very traditional - he could do better, though.

The sun had set behind the mountains completely by the time he returned to the village. A few lights shone through windows, including those at his house. Standing at the entrance of the old iron gate to his home was Kikyou. She cupped her hands in front of herself and kept her gaze at the ground. She did look up when she heard him approaching, but she quickly looked back down. She stepped forward after gathering her courage.

"Naraku, I shouldn't have sa-"

"Here." Naraku cut her off, holding the book out to her. Kikyou stared at the book wide-eyed, as if unfamiliar with it. Slowly, she reached up and took it with both hands. Naraku walked past her to the gate, the hinge squealing as he opened it.

"That was an awful thing for me to say. I was angry and,"

"Should I also disregard what you say when you're happy?"

"No." she sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. I understand if you don't want to forgive me."

Naraku turned back to her. "You should go home before your parents tell my mother that I kidnapped you...again."

"Naraku,"

"Go." he ordered strongly, searching his pockets for his key and walking towards his front door. He bypassed the kitchen where his mother and sister were talking and walked up the staircase. When he entered his room, he locked the door behind himself and fell face first onto his bed.

 _'Maybe I really am evil. That must be why she hangs around me; she wishes to cleanse me.'_

A loud beeping noise began echoing through his room. He opened his eyes and instead of being in his small bed, he was in his king-sized bed. His white sheets and blankets were now black. Naraku turned onto his side and reached behind himself, slipping his hand under his shirt. When his fingers found the soft, thin skin of his scar, he knew it had been another dream.

After showering and dressing, Naraku drove to campus. He was irritated because he hadn't been able to work out for almost a week. He was also tired despite actually receiving some sleep. He walked into the lab and spotted Jade setting up a small experiment on the table.

"Hey," she said, waving to him. Naraku said nothing back. He walked up beside her and examined the beakers she had labeled. He picked up the beaker with a white powder inside it. The label read, "Borax."

"The slime experiment?" he asked dryly.

"Yeah. Halloween project." Jade took the beaker from Naraku's hand. He decided to let her have it without a struggle.

"I know a good one for fake blood if you're interested," he offered, remembering the day he used that mixture to traumatize children. Jade made an interested cooing sound in response.

 _'That was the day I met Jade.'_ Naraku realized, leaning into the table with his hands. Frowning, he lowered his head with his face hidden behind his hair. Why did he suddenly remember that? The door opened and Bruce steadily walked in, carrying two boxes stacked on each other, towering above his head. He slid the boxes onto the surface of the table and exhaled.

"Those are our vials, glass slide materials, pH strips, and some other things that we needed stocked again. Can you put them away when you get a minute?" Bruce asked, pointing at Jade. She looked up and nodded and Bruce nodded back. He pointed at Naraku next. "I still haven't heard anything, which could be good. They haven't immediately denied me."

"Forgive me for not jumping for joy." Naraku replied, his tone cold. Bruce rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, reaching up to stroke his beard.

"I'm doing all I can. I could just tell them forget it, he'll have it all in the mail by Friday."

"Hm." Naraku reared up and looked away.

"You look awful. Why don't you go take a nap and start working on your apology letter to the university? Our research methods class isn't meeting this week, but there's a seminar you need to attend this Friday; write and and turn in notes, conclusion - the usual."

"Sure, Bruce." Naraku exhaled heavily. He was too tired to argue.

"What else would you have me do, Naraku? Do you have any suggestions on how to make them change their minds?" Bruce asked exasperatedly, rubbing his forehead with his hand and he closed his eyes.

"Threaten them." Naraku answered simply. He glanced at Jade when he heard her giggle.

"Threaten them with what?"

"A weapon,"

"Is he fuckin'," Bruce looked at Jade while pointing at Naraku and then looked back at his grad student. "They're across the ocean!"

"Planes fly."

"You're out of your mind." Bruce retorted, tapping the side of his head with his finger.

"I'm a little irritable, yes. I distinctly remember a certain professor being the final vote for restricting graduate students from working jobs outside of the department."

"Look, don't you start,"

"Shut up. I'm talking." Naraku demanded as he leaned forward and placed his hands on the table to steady himself. "I have bills to pay, Bruce. I also have to find a new car since Jade destroyed mine. Insurance companies aren't merciful or understanding...or punctual."

"I know you're stressed,"

"Don't pretend to not be an insurance company of your own interests. Without my thesis, I don't receive funding and without my funding and thesis, your laboratory budget and payment take a hit."

"Yeah, well, one of us still has the other by the balls, and mine are feeling mighty breezy right now. What do you want from me?" Bruce's voice was tired and frustrated now.

"You handicapped me by forcing me to quit my previous job, so find something else in the department for me."

"Fine. Fair enough." Bruce sighed, crossing his arms. "Anything else, your grace?"

"No. You may leave." Naraku replied with a smirk as he waved his hand towards the door. Bruce glared at him for another moment before walking out heatedly. A soft clinking noise caught Naraku's attention and he looked to his side where Jade had sat down, moving her experiment out of the way to text on her phone quickly.

"Where did you work?" Jade asked as she looked up at him.

"I was a pharmacy technician."

"Sooooo you went from a legal drug dealer to an illegal drug dealer?"

"I was both. The pharmacy paid the big bills; the weed was a hobby that I turned into a small profit for play money."

"Oh." Jade was looking back at her phone. A text message had appeared and even from a distance, Naraku could see the giant, "HELL THE FUCK NO," response she had received.

"And you?"

"Hm?" Jade was typing a reply.

"Have you ever tried dealing?"

"Ahaha," Jade sat up as she smiled widely. "I tried it once and got pulled over for not using my turn signal, so I decided not to try it again."

"Is there anything you're not terrible with?"

"Video games. And I do bad art really good sometimes." Jade said boldly. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at her phone. Naraku could tell from the way she was twisting and turning her phone in her hands that she was anxious about something.

 _'Did I go too far with that last comment?'_ he wondered.

"Hey, I'm really sorry about your car. I wish I could remember it, I really do, but...I can help you with a new car," Jade's eyes widened when Naraku frowned at her. "If you want!"

"I don't want your pity money." Naraku grumbled.

"You see, I thought you'd say that. Stream with me and work for it."

"What?" Naraku's frown dissipated and now he stared at her with slight shock. Jade held a finger up as she stood from her stool.

"Hear me out," she began. "If you stream with me, you get a cut of the money, and,"

"Were you asking permission a few moments ago?" Naraku interrupted, solving the, "HELL THE FUCK NO," puzzle in his head. Her grimace answered him before she did.

"Yeah, but Koga doesn't want to rock the boat. So stream with me and you'll get a cut."

"One stream isn't going to be enough."

"But if you do multiple streams,"

"No." Naraku finally said. He saw the hope drain from her face. An ache began to swell in his chest.

 _'Why does this keep happening?'_ he thought frantically.

"Please," Jade insisted. "Just a few. Let me help you. I owe you something for what I did."

"You," Naraku paused, staring down at his hands. "I dislocated your shoulder. We're even."

"You did that to save me."

"Or so the rumors say," Naraku said with a forced smirk. He crossed his arms and turned towards her. "How do you know I didn't lie to cover for myself?"

"Because I saw you do it." Jade replied, now staring at her phone listlessly. "It's the one thing I do remember."

"I..." Naraku was at a loss for words. The scene was playing in his mind again. She tossed the block onto his car and then started freaking out again, holding her head and crying. His heart was pounding and for a brief moment, their eyes had met before he dove forward and grabbed her.

"You told me to stop before you ran towards me and then you grabbed my wrist." she explained, grabbing her left wrist with her right hand. "I remember. It wasn't a dream."

"What was I supposed to do? Let you jump?" he asked carefully.

"I mean, you could have," she answered. Naraku's hands balled into fists as he stepped forward.

"Why would I do that?" he asked icily.

"Hey, you've threatened me before," Jade argued.

"Fine. I'm too tired to argue." Naraku looked away and exhaled. His body felt like it weighed a ton and was no longer muscular. He felt like a blob of irritation and fatigue. Plus, she had a point. He had threatened her multiple times. He didn't remember ever wanting her to die, though.

"Since when are you too tired to argue?"

"Since now. I'll be in my office if you need to annoy me further."

"Okay, Grump."

When Naraku entered his office, he locked the door behind him and rested his face on his old wooden desk. The surface was cool and his face was heated. Part of him wondered if he was falling ill and the other part of him was still blaming all the alcohol he drank four days prior. Truthfully, he had no idea why he was feeling awful.

 _'The dreams...it's like I'm living that life again.'_ But they made him restless in the night and when he would wake the following morning, he didn't feel any more rested than before he slept. The ringing of his phone pulled him from his trance.

"Damn." Naraku exhaled. It was time for therapy. He had slept for nearly two hours? Reluctantly and slowly, he stood up and left his office.

When he sat in the chair, his therapist sat down across the room from him and scribbled the date at the top of his paper. Naraku closed his eyes.

"It's our last session together," the older man, Richard, announced. "Is there anything you-"

"I have a question,"

"Go on." Richard sounded unamused. He was expecting a demeaning statement, which was Naraku's usual game, but for the first time in years, Naraku was too exhausted even for that.

"You cannot report crimes I've committed in the past, right?"

"Correct. Unless it's a murder," his therapist now sounded concerned. Naraku nodded, but kept his eyes closed.

"I drugged my lab assistant with an unknown substance I've been working with. I was sure it wouldn't do anything to her, but I was wrong. She became very ill and went berserk to the point of nearly killing herself. It's part of the reason why I'm here, except no one knows what I did." Naraku inhaled through his nose deeply. "Since then, almost every interaction I've had with her has resulted in me feeling sick - my blood runs cold, I'm nauseous, my chest aches, and my heart feels like it will explode. I don't...understand why."

"You...don't know what it is?" Richard asked slowly, sounding skeptical. Naraku finally opened his eyes and stared at the man.

"No."

"You've never felt this way?"

"I'm not sure," Naraku began to think about all the times he bickered with Kikyou. She was night compared to Jade being day. Their only similarity was their mellow personalities.

 _'My dream - it was the time I made fun of her for believing in yokai. I was angry with my mother and took it out on Kikyou.'_

"I suppose I have now that I think about it. It has been a long time." Naraku admitted.

"You'll keep feeling like this if you don't tell her what you did."

"No, I cannot tell her. Ever." he said back, shaking his head vehemently.

"If you-"

"Jade would never speak to me again if I told her and I can't-" Naraku cut himself off. There it was again! That unbearable pain was swelling in his chest! "I don't need her for her skills or for any games anymore. She treats me like a person, not a monster, despite everything I've done and said to her. It's...nice."

"As selfish as your decision is, it's understandable and it's sad, but if she has looked past everything else, why wouldn't she look past this? Is this the worst you've done to her?"

"She doesn't like violence and yet she became violent. It's the complete opposite of who she is. Even now, she still apologizes for it and tries to make up for it. She acts like she wronged me. If she found out that I was the reason she did those things, the reason she was so sick and injured and unable to work, I'm certain she would leave the lab, probably the city, if that meant staying away from me."

"Well, you can either let this fester longer or you can get it over with and roll the dice. I don't take you as the remorseful type, but the fact that you do feel it now is something. It might mean more to her than you realize." Richard explained after clearing his throat. "Maybe if you work your way up to it - is there anything you can do to make her happy? Something she likes?"

"I don't think so." Naraku sighed. He suddenly remembered Jade asking him to stream with her, to help him pay for a new car. She was risking the trust between herself and her friends, her online image, to repay him for destroying his car...which was his fault anyway.

"Come on, I'm sure there's something. It looks like you've thought of something."

"There is something."

"Then do it. I'm sure it's harmless. You owe her something in the meantime, but you need to tell her the truth, Naraku."

 _'I can't even admit to her that I like her, let alone that I nearly killed her.'_ Naraku could feel the tension throughout his body once more.

 **000000**

Stifling a yawn with the back of her hand, Jade scribbled down the next bill total, its due date, and the smallest amount a month she was allowed to pay on it. She knew the bills would arrive eventually, but the amounts were outrageous. She was only four bills through her pile and her max total already exceeded three months of the total apartment rent between her, Sango, and Kagome. She had four more to go and then she still had more still on the way within the next week or two.

"Oh my God," she whined quietly. Even though she didn't have to pay the total amount of the bills at once, the monthly payments still added up painfully. By the time she was through this round, she would be essentially be making another car and internet payment on top of her actual car and internet payments. Jade slid a finger under the flap of the next envelope, gently tearing it open and unfolding the paper within. She felt her heart drop.

"Jade? What are you doing?" Kagome asked with a yawn, rubbing her eye. She had gone to bed an hour ago, but Jade must have disturbed her.

"Figuring out how many years I'm going to be in debt to school and the hospital," Jade said irritably, tossing the thousand-dollar bill on the table with the others.

"Oh. Is it that bad?"

"Why do we have insurance? What does it do?" Jade asked, her voice strained with frustration. "This one bill, this one," Jade tapped the paper vehemently. "It's a thousand dollars on its own!"

"What?"

"It's just the first MRI and I had another done, so I have another thousand-dollar bill on its way in a few weeks! These other bills combined are fifteen-hundred and some change combined, and the payments on them are about the same as my car and internet bills! I know the guys raised money for me, and it's helping, but even then, it isn't enough!"

"Hey, hey," Kagome placed her hand on Jade's shoulder. "It sounds bad, I'm sure there's something that can be done. You're going back to delivering, right?"

"Yeah,"

"Have you tried calling the hospital to see if they can write some of these off? They're normally lenient if you're a college student. If they don't write it off completely, they'll cut the bill into a lesser amount going by your income."

"I guess so. I'll call tomorrow." Jade replied defeatedly.

"Just tell them that you were in a coma, and that you can't afford all of this because the coma has prevented you from working for a while. You were physically incapable."

"Yeah," Jade covered her face with her hands and exhaled loudly.

"Come on, don't do bills and budgets before you go to bed."

"I sleep better when I have a general plan." Jade said, but she began gathering the bills and her plan together anyway. Kagome was right; there was no reason to get upset.

"Also, how busy are you tomorrow?" Kagome asked curiously. Jade looked up, trying to remember what day tomorrow was.

"Well, since Naraku no longer has anything for me to do, I have a couple of hours before I help with your class. Why? Need something?"

"Yeah, I'm taking an extra shift tomorrow, so I won't have time to grab groceries before. Sango gave me her end and I'll give you my end, more if you're still stressed about-"

"Nah, I can hold up my end."

"Alright. I'll text you the list."

"Good night. And thanks for the ideas. I'll give them a shot."

"You're welcome."

When Jade woke the following day, she decided to pull on her dark blue skinny jeans instead of her faded loose ones. She also wore a tighter fitting dark green shirt and a simple gray jacket to combat the slight chill in the air. She stood in the bathroom, staring into the mirror and turning her head to observe different angles.

 _'My eyes don't look sunken in anymore; that's good.'_ But Jade still added some foundation to her face to look less pale. Then she tilted her head, trying to figure out why she wasn't pleased with her look. Almost instantly, she could hear Naraku mocking her in her head about her plain hair. So, she parted her hair to the side like he did for her in Colorado.

"He's right, as usual." Jade said in a low voice while smiling. Lately, just the thought of some of his quirks would bring a smile to her face. He was an odd man, the oddest she had ever met, and mean, and bitter; yet she still wanted to be his friend. Under the cold, cruel exterior was someone who was hurting. Once she had realized that, she no longer held any long-term anger towards him, felt deeply offended by him, or nervous of him. He did scare her at the hotel, but he was upset, drunk, and he didn't hurt her...or wreck her car with a block of cement.

 _'I wonder if he was abused. Every time I touch him, he tenses up and almost acts like he's in pain. I probably shouldn't do it, then.'_ she thought as she washed her hands. _'Though he does it to me...damn, he's weird.'_

When she realized she was running a bit late, Jade ran out of the apartment and to her car. She was just happy to be able to run again! She tried not to speed to campus, but she ran to class with a wide smile on her face. Jade sat next to Sango and stretched her arms. They felt good as new, almost better, and her gameplay had improved immensely. Her reflexes seemed quicker than before the coma, but Jade was sure that she was probably used to being slow. The only problem was her heart. Something shocked the organ deeply and it was having the most difficult time recovering. Jade wasn't given medications because of the crystals growing on her muscles and the fear that they would cause a horrible reaction. But those crystals were gone now, so maybe some medication for her heart was necessary.

"So, I've finally finished grading your midterm sketches of our guest model!" the professor announced, jerking Jade from her thoughts. "While I'm passing them out, go ahead and continue working on your sketches of a favorite item of yours."

"Oh boy," Sango said sarcastically, flipping her sketchbook open.

"Come on, staring at him wasn't that bad."

"You're used to staring at him - naked." Sango shot.

"I don't know why anyone thinks I'm talented enough to get that man to drop his pants for me. On a scale of one to ten with ten being the best, he's a fifteen and I'm a six, maybe a seven if I wear nice clothes,"

"There are some men who prefer women who aren't super attractive and he doesn't strike me as your typical man."

"So you agree that I'm mildly ugly?" Jade asked with a sly smirk, knowing that wasn't what Sango meant.

"Wh-What? No! I didn't say- I didn't mean to imply that! I was just saying that-"

"I'm ugly."

"Shut up, Jade! I didn't call you that!" Sango replied frantically, cringing slightly when she spotted a few classmates looking at her.

"Jade," a voice called. She turned her head and looked up at her professor. "You did a really good job. This is probably your best; you've really improved." He placed the folder on the table in front of Jade. Sango began snickering maniacally.

"Oh, yeah, thanks," Jade then lowered her voice. "Thanks for reinforcing Sango's crazy theory that my ugly ass can nail a hot guy."

"I didn't call you ugly." Sango insisted with a grin. "Open it; let's see how well you know his body."

"Hm," Jade opened the folder and Sango leaned over immediately. Jade scratched her head. Neither of the sketches looked that good to her. Her shading had improved, though.

"Of course you get bonus points for drawing pot leaves instead of his dick," Sango remarked bitterly.

"You're goddamn right. I don't succeed with quality; I succeed with creativity." Jade responded proudly, taking pictures with her phone.

"Are you sending those to him?" Sango asked after thanking the professor for her folder.

"Yeah. I know he's going to hate them, but I want to know how much."

"It's almost like you get off on him tearing you down."

"I get off on annoying and disappointing him." Jade corrected. "Let's see yours,"

"Alright," Sango opened her folder and Jade leaned over, pointing at the sketched dick.

"You didn't even try to emasculate him! Who's thirsty now?" Jade asked jokingly. "Look at the detail!"

"Sh-Shut up!" Sango laughed, quickly slamming her folder shut.

"Ahahaha," Jade was now staring at her phone. "He told me to burn them."

"Show him mine." Sango insisted, opening her folder again. Jade snapped the pictures and sent them immediately, informing him that they were Sango's.

"It's almost like you get off on him tearing you down, Sango."

"I'm going to let Kirara into your room when you sleep."

"Okay." Jade felt her phone vibrate.

 ** _'She clearly put far more effort into hers. Tell her that I also think of her when I touch myself.'_** was his response. Jade's snickers and giggles were too persistent, so she held her screen towards Sango. Sango's curious expression darkened to a scowl.

"I'm going to break every bone in his body twice." Sango said venomously. Jade's giggles only increased.

Jade finished the general outline of the arcade stick that she used in tournaments. It didn't take her nearly as long as she thought it would, and now that she knew her shading was better, she was ready to claim it as her best work, not the nude Naraku sketches. Jade cursed when she snapped the tip off her pencil once more. It was the fourth time that day. Sango used it for a few minutes and it worked fine, but once Jade held it and got lost in her thoughts, it snapped.

"I should have chosen something easier," Sango said in a low voice. She decided to sketch Kirara. Jade looked at it and shrugged.

"It looks okay to me."

"I can only imagine what you would be like as a professor grading stuff," Sango slouched her shoulders and let her head tilt slightly, "Hey brah, cool sketch of a joint - fifty bonus points."

"Hell yeah."

After class, the roommates went their separate ways. Sango was off to work and Jade was off to the store. She read the list Kagome sent her as she walked to the parking lot, glancing up to dodge people walking the opposite way on the sidewalk. Jade replaced her phone in her hand with her keys and when she opened the door, a hand reached past her head and slammed it shut.

"Where do you think you're going? We have a lab to teach." his tone was calm and heavy.

"Yeah, in two hours." Jade responded, finally looking over her shoulder at him. "How long were you following me?"

"Most of the way. You're not very perceptive. I was only a few paces behind you."

"Cool." Jade said flippantly. "I have to go now." Naraku closed the door again when she opened it.

"Where are you going?"

"To the store to buy some tampons and a Snickers, Naraku." Jade replied dryly. A small smile crept across his face.

"Touchy."

"For real, though; the store."

"I will accompany you." he said. He didn't even let Jade approve or disapprove as he walked to the passenger side door.

Jade decided to let him go with her. Now that he no longer had any material to work on or articles to read, he was bored and needed entertainment. She understood that, but she also wished he would just ask. Just once. Naraku was now scrolling through her iPod, investigating all of the music she had. The last time he did that, he wiped the entire thing, forcing her to re-download all of her music and lists again from her computer. He seemed genuinely interested this time; humming in approval or grunting with disapproval.

"Why does a boring person like you have rave music?" Naraku asked aloud. Jade turned to him with a smirk.

"How many of my videos have you watched?"

"Your humor is tame compared to the others' and you don't often lose your temper."

"I have more than game content."

"I watched the video about you building your current rig setup to receive maximum gameplay and streaming capabilities. You're nothing but a computer and laboratory nerd."

"Okay." Jade pulled into a parking space. She had thousands of videos and despite them being organized into playlists, she still had hundreds of those. She wasn't too shocked if he was still chewing through the initial bulk of it.

Jade grabbed a small cart and headed to the fruits and vegetables section of the store. She read the list and set out to grab the items Kagome wanted. She noticed that Naraku had disappeared, but she wasn't going to complain about that. Jade placed the lettuce, parsley, and carrots into the cart, alongside the cilantro, which she wanted to use to make some salsa. Next she found the apples, tomatoes, and grapes. Jade turned the corner of the isle and Naraku strode up to her with his hands in his pants pockets.

"Where have you been?" she asked him curiously.

"Don't worry about it." he replied, looking off to the side at nothing.

 _'Dealing.'_ Jade smirked as she walked past him. She had been around that scene long enough to know, even with someone as smooth and sly as Naraku. _'That's why he wanted to come with me.'_

"Hm," she hummed softly, now staring at the different types and brands of tea. She knew the brand she preferred wasn't there; it was one of the reasons why she had yet to make any chili pepper tea. But, she overcame that barrier and decided to make some since the weather was cooling even more. Warm chili pepper tea was the best for chilly weather, as Mama often told her. "I suppose you'll do," she murmured, grabbing a box and moving on.

Naraku appeared on the other side of the isle and Jade snorted. He readjusted his black jacket and placed his hands inside those pockets, approaching Jade once more. He opened his mouth to say something rude, she assumed, but his gaze darted down into the cart. He reached inside and grabbed the box of tea bags.

"I'm judging you." he said aloud with a slightly disgusted expression. .

"I know."

"This type is bland."

"I need it to be. I'm making chili pepper tea."

"Ch...Chili pepper tea?" Naraku repeated. His entire demeanor changed; his piercing eyes were now innocent and curious and his tone lost its sharp edge and was now soft. He even held the box gently, as if he was afraid he would break it.

"Ever had it?"

"No."

"I make a mean brew. They don't have the brand I like, but I can make it-"

"You know how to make chili pepper tea?" Naraku interrupted pointedly.

"Yeah," Jade answered uncertainly. She knew he liked tea, but she didn't think he would be that interested in hers. She was expecting the condescending attitude, but even that was mild compared to his usual levels.

"I want to try it." he said.

"I can bring you some this weekend when I make it."

"I've decided that I will stream with you."

"Just to try my tea?" she asked skeptically. Naraku placed the box back into the cart and was now looking at her.

"No. I changed my mind yesterday; I was deciding how to tell you."

"You open your mouth and say it." Jade smiled. "What changed your mind?" Immediately, his eyes widened slightly, but he turned his head before shrugging. When he turned back to look at Jade, his expression was controlled.

"I'm that desperate, I suppose." he finally said. Jade looked down and sighed heavily.

 _'I know he's lying, but...fuck him and his mind games! I'm very stupid, Auntie. I know.'_ Jade began walking again, pushing the cart slowly.

"Okay." she replied softly.

"Okay?" he was now walking beside her, leaning forward to see her face better. "Are you not happy? I thought you…" he trailed off.

"It was just a suggestion, Naraku."

"I'm taking you up on your offer. Why are you upset?"

"You're amazing sometimes," Jade laughed, revealing more bitterness than she meant to. Naraku grabbed the cart and stood in front of it to stop her in her tracks. He wasn't acting intimidating, but he was far taller and stronger than she was; her body tensed up and waited for whatever would happen.

"I don't understand. I thought you wanted this." Naraku said slowly.

"I do, but you really don't and that doesn't make me excited; it makes me apprehensive."

"If I truly didn't want to, I wouldn't have given it a second thought."

"But you didn't want to for me or even for yourself; you're desperate. People don't make normal decisions when they're desperate."

"Why do you care about what I want? I'm doing what you want, aren't I?" Naraku asked. His tone wasn't mockful or bitter and his expression was anything but smug. The realization hit Jade like a truck. He wasn't playing mind games; he was genuinely confused. Most relationships were built on the idea of giving and taking, but his viewpoint was everyone taking meant everything was fair game to him.

"Naraku," Jade began as she inhaled deeply.

"What?" he asked frantically. "I'm doing what you want, I'm not making fun of you - do you want me to beg?"

"..." the truck of realization that struck Jade before switched gears into reverse and nailed her again. He was trying to please her! He! Naraku! Why?

 _'Something is different with him ever since the conference. Did it break him that much?'_ Jade wondered. Naraku never did anything without a good reason. What was his reason for giving in other than money? He was crafty and extremely intelligent, so she knew he would find ways to make money without her. So, did he really just want to do something with her to make her happy? _'For someone who can explain molecular structures and thermodynamics in great detail without missing a beat, he sure does suck at just talking to people.'_

"Stop looking at me like that." Naraku grumbled, trying his best to glare at her, but the best he could muster up was a childlike pout.

"Is Saturday evening good for you?" Jade relented, deciding to leave the conversation of how relationships worked for another day. She saw the relief splash across his face.

"Yes."

"We'll do it then. We'll start at nine, so show up at my place at six or seven. It's October, so it has to be a game relating to scary things."

"Fine."

For the rest of the shopping trip, Naraku followed Jade around and said nothing. He continued the silence while they prepared chemicals and equipment for the class. He could tell Jade was unnerved by it, but for once, Naraku had nothing to say. He couldn't say anything worthy of his time or hers.

 _'If I act too strangely, she's going to suspect something, but if I continue to be cruel to her, I'm going to become physically ill. What other options do I have?'_ Naraku asked himself. A sharp snap broke the silence, followed by a gasp.

"Ow!" Jade hissed, holding her right hand with her left as she stepped back. "Are you fuckin'...ticklin' my balls right now? How did I do that?" she finally looked up and saw Naraku staring back at her blankly.

"That was an interesting expression. What did you do?"

"I was pulling the cork out of that test tube and I crushed it!" she explained frantically. Naraku slowly walked towards her and the broken glass on the floor.

"It was probably cracked already."

"No, it wasn't. I checked it." she replied with a pout. "I'm not blind."

"Then you must have been squeezing it mercilessly." Naraku replied, taking her injured hand and turning her palm up. Every finger had a cut and her palm received several deeper cuts. Naraku spotted a shard of glass still stuck into her palm and plucked it out while Jade was busy mumbling curses under her breath. To his surprise, she didn't react.

"This is bullshit. Why is it always my dominant hand? Why can't my left hand get fucked for once?"

"I know a way to guarantee that," Naraku replied.

"Did you just make a handjob joke?"

"What?" Naraku's eyes widened. He meant to imply that she use her left hand for tasks instead of her right. "I suppose I did. It wasn't my intent."

"It was a good one." Jade with a giggle. Naraku had walked away to grab the medical kit from one of the cabinets. "I can do it."

"You couldn't even reach the kit at that height." he retorted, opening the kit and grabbing the small bottle of peroxide.

"We have a stepstool."

"I'm too tired to argue." Naraku exhaled defeatedly. He began to clean her wounds anyway. It was true, though. His eyes stung with exhaustion and every blink teased them with rest.

"So, do you do this with everyone? I'm not complaining; just curious. You don't like helping people, so it's a bit out-of-character for you." she asked. Naraku locked gazes with her for a moment and when he saw that she wasn't mocking him, he cleared his throat.

"I do this with almost anyone. I don't really think about it. I just do it."

"Soooooo...conditioned?"

"You could say that." Naraku pressed the bandage on her palm. Her hand was so small the bandage almost completely covered her palm. "The cuts on your fingers are small. They don't need to be covered."

"Okay. Thanks."

When class started, Naraku told everyone to start their next experiment and sat at the desk, deciding to compromise with his tired body. Part of him almost wanted to ask Jade to handle the class by herself, but as smart as Jade was, she didn't know every detail and in case of an emergency, he had medical training. He watched as Jade checked the gas connection to the burner for the dudes' table at the back of the room. They almost always had an issue with some piece of equipment and while Jade didn't seem to mind helping them, Naraku was annoyed by how blatant they were to gain the attention of their internet heroine. Jade huffed and placed her hands on her hips. She grabbed the handle of the gas faucet with her left hand and turned it harshly out of frustration...and broke the handle.

"What? Whaaaaaat?" Jade shouted with disbelief, staring wide-eyed at the metallic handle in her hand. Naraku was on his feet and saw one of the dudes squeezing the flint lighter impatiently and absentmindedly as he waited.

"D-" The plume of fire erupted faster than he could speak. He shielded his face with his arms, hearing the frightened shrieks of students and stools falling over as people fled from the fire. Naraku's body froze up when he heard her voice screaming his name.

 _'Naraku! I'm over here! I'm trapped!'_ Kikyou shouted between coughs.

"She's dead, she isn't here, she's dead, she isn't here," he chanted in a whisper. The alarms began ringing in the room and in the hallways, drowning out Kikyou's cries, and as Naraku lowered his arms as the sprinklers began raining water on the students, their experiments, and their papers.

"What do we do?" someone shouted frantically. Naraku flinched when he finally remembered where he was. He wasn't home. He was at the school. He was in the classroom. He was the instructor.

"Leave!" Naraku ordered, pointing to one of the doors of the laboratory. He made his way over to the table where he last saw Jade and the two students she was helping. Jade was sitting up from the floor and rubbing her elbow. "Burns?"

"I don't think so," Jade said as she examined her arms and hands. Naraku grabbed her face and turned her towards him. That's when he noticed he was shaking. He quickly let go.

"Help me check these morons." Naraku knelt down next to the first dude. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide with shock, but Naraku checked him and found no burns, so he ordered him to leave.

"It's okay," Jade's soft voice was barely audible over the screaming alarms. She was helping the dude who started the fire to his feet. The hand that held the flint striker was visibly burned, but he was fine otherwise. The other two had already fled the room because they were standing at one of the sinks, well out of the fire's reach. Naraku flipped his soggy hair behind him. He felt all patience leave him when Jade walked the injured student up to him.

"You fucking idiot." Naraku stated coldly. "She was trying to fix the gas and you thought it was wise to play with the flint striker?"

"It was an accident." Jade insisted.

"Horrible things have happened due to accidents caused by idiots who weren't paying attention." Naraku replied, turning to leave the room and find Bruce to begin filing a report. He could feel a burning itch around the scar on his back and he could faintly hear her screaming his name again.

 _'Naraku! Wake up!'_ she pleaded. Naraku felt like he was being crushed! He could barely breathe and his body began trembling even more. He inhaled, gasped...

The next thing he knew, he was running. He ran upstairs to the main floor and burst from the building, tearing through the crowd of professors, students, and staff; pushing and shouldering anyone in his way. Voices ordered him to stop, but he shed his soaked lab coat and continued sprinting. Why? He didn't know. Where to? He didn't know! All he knew was that he couldn't be there anymore! The chilly air began to make his damp clothes unbearable. His exhausted body stumbled and Naraku stopped and held onto the first thing he could reach, squeezing his eyes shut.

 _'Focus on something else, something else,'_ he gripped the rough object tighter. ' _Bark...a tree,'_ Naraku finally opened his eyes and steadily eased himself down into a sitting position, pressing his back against the tree. He wrapped his arms around himself and pulled his knees up.

"What's...happening?" he whispered shakily with frustration. Before he could stop himself, he whimpered and felt tears streaming down his face. They were the only warmth he could feel at that moment. They were a bittersweet warmth, unlike the awful hellfire that consumed his only friend.

 _'I couldn't save her! Why was she there?'_ He closed his eyes, inhaled through his nose deeply, and went far away inside; away from the cold, away from the tears, away from the crushing sensation, away from Kikyou's voice, and away from Jade's laugh. Only when he was surrounded by darkness in a deafening silence did he stop.


	22. Haunted

**Haunted**

Naraku wiped the sweat from his face and neck with his towel. He was only able run half of his normal amount of laps and even those depleted a majority of his energy. He regretted running before lifting because now he wanted nothing to do with lifting. Naraku waited for the other runners to pass him before crossing the track to head towards the weights.

 _'I don't want to, but I need to.'_ he told himself. He was convinced that if he was able to return to his carefully calculated regiment, he would feel strong again. His body still looked great, but it felt several times heavier than it was...and so weak. On his way to the bench press station, he grabbed a couple of weights, sliding them onto the lifting bar. Naraku quickly sat on the bench. He was winded already. _'Maybe it's a virus.'_ If he was sick, then he probably shouldn't exhaust himself even more, but deep down inside, he knew it was something else. When his mind began to wander back to the fire, he positioned himself under the bar and gripped it with both hands.

"I...can't." he whispered as he watched his arms and hands tremble. Closing his eyes, he began to coach himself to grip the bar harder, to push up and hold the damn bar! Why was this such an issue? It was almost like he was scared of something. When he opened his eyes, he prepared to lift, but his body refused. "Damn it."

"Figured I would find you here," a woman stated with slight annoyance. Sango appeared behind him and peered down at him with her hands on her hips. "Need a spotter?"

Naraku felt his entire body recoil. "No."

"Are you still planning to stream with Jade later?"

"Yes." Naraku inhaled deeply, preparing himself for Sango to begin lecturing him on his mistreatment of Jade and his general existence.

"I really didn't want to agree to it, but I did it for Jade because for some reason, she likes you. I don't get it."

"Neither do I."

"So what's your plan? To make her hate it?"

"Have I made her hate something she loves?" Naraku asked Sango, placing his hand on his stomach as he slowly sat up to soothe the nausea.

"No,"

"Have I forced her to stop doing something she loves?"

"Well, no,"

"There are plenty of things I've done to her - pick one - but don't lecture me about something I haven't done."

"Fair enough." Sango huffed. "Just don't torment her. She's trying to help you."

"I'm aware."

"You're not very combative today. Are you sick?"

"I'm tired." Naraku answered, closing his eyes and rubbing them. "I will be on my best behavior later." he remarked as he stood up.

"Wait! Weren't you going to lift?"

"I was. You have demotivated me for the day." Naraku said as he began walking away.

The warm water of the shower was actually welcoming. Despite barely working out, his body was tense and sore, so the water was helping relieve some of it. Naraku kneaded the knots he felt in his legs, his thoughts lingering on his dead thesis project. Bruce received a counteroffer from his sponsors the day after the fire, but Naraku didn't care to hear it. He refused to settle for anything less than he originally agreed to.

After he dried his hair, he pulled on a pair of dark jeans and a dark gray turtleneck sweater. The temperatures were chilly, but not freezing, so a coat was still unnecessary. He scooped his guinea pig from his cage and placed him on the floor alongside his cardboard litter box. Naraku sat down on his couch and propped his feet up on his table, typing up different response emails to the counteroffer Bruce forwarded to him. His first email draft summed up to, "Go fuck yourself." His second draft was similar.

 _'What can I do? What can I say? Should I tell them what I've discovered?'_ Naraku immediately spawned an idea. _'No, I should taunt them with what I've discovered. It seems like they have no idea what to do with it, and neither do I, but I'm willing to bet all I'm worth that I know more than they do.'_

He typed up a generic Naraku-esque response to Bruce first. He informed his professor that the counteroffer was an insult at best and that they had two options; restore the original agreement or go to Hell and inform Naraku why they kicked him off the project before they leave. He knew Bruce would clean it up in his response to them. Then, Naraku found the email he used to communicate with them a month prior. They never responded to the email; they just sent him what he asked for. He wondered what they would do this time.

 _'I will just tell them I did it, not how.'_ Naraku began typing. _'And if they still refuse, I'll blow this entire project sky high along with the solutions.'_

 ** _'I managed to dissolve the gem and replicate it. Are you still willing to play ball or should I share my findings with Bruce and publish an article about them instead?'_**

Naraku sent it and smiled.

 **000000**

"How was work, Jade?" Sango asked with a smile as she looked up from her notebook which sat in her lap.

"I never thought I would miss the smell of pizza or the sound of customers complaining that our prices are too high." Jade retorted as she shuffled into the kitchen, running her fingers through her freshly washed and dried hair. Working in the pizza shop again also made her shower feel a thousand times better than normal. "I'm going to start the tea and salsa." Jade announced.

It took a few minutes, but she finally got into the swing of it. It had been a while since she made her variation of Mama's tea, but she had done it many times in the past, more than she could count or remember, so her hands knew better than she did. She crushed the dried pepper flakes into the finest powder she could before carefully opening two tea bags, making sure not to rip them. She poured the ground tea into the bowl with the ground peppers and lightly shook the bowl to mix the contents together. Next, she poured the mixed tea and peppers back into the little tea bags, wrapping them back up and making sure they wouldn't break open.

 _'Alright, so this will only take a few minutes to boil and it's best when it's warm, so I need to start on the salsa.'_ Jade told herself, placing the tea bags in the bowl and pushing it back from the edge.

"Need help? I finished my reading for the night." Sango stretched her arms above her head as she walked into the kitchen. She pulled her gray sweatshirt back down and sighed.

"Sure, if you don't mind helping me chop some of these veggies,"

"I'm on it."

The kitchen was filled with the music of chopping, scraping, and running water. When the salsa was finished, Jade placed lids over both bowls and placed them in the fridge; blue bowl for mild and red for spicy. Then she pulled out a bottle of margarita mix and tequila, wiggling it with a wide smile on her face. Sango nodded and pulled open the cabinets for glasses. Jade poured after Sango dropped ice cubes in the glasses and they toasted each other before drinking. Sango cringed slightly, but Jade was immune to the alcohol's strength.

"We need mariachi music to complete the stereotype," Jade announced, pulling her phone out to search for mariachi tunes.

"Mmm!" Sango snickered and took another drink only to cover her mouth to keep herself from spitting when the kitchen was filled with the sound of upbeat strings of guitars, a guitarrón and smooth Spanish lyrics.

"El cartel es de respeto y jamáis a perdonadooooo! Ese compa ya esta muertooooooo," Jade sang, swaying in place to the beat of the bass line. "Nomas no le han avisadoooooo!"

"It's so happy!" Sango said.

"It's about murder!" Jade laughed. Sango tilted her head, her eyes wide with shock.

"Really?"

"Yeah, a lot of mariachi music is pretty dark, but it sounds innocent and lighthearted," Jade explained, still bouncing to the music. "I grew up with it because of Auntie and Mama...that explains a lot now that I think about it,"

"Hahaha, well, I can't say my upbringing was normal, either. Somehow my younger brother turned out to be the normal one."

"Well, they say the oldest gets the harsher punishments," Jade pointed out, draining the last of the margarita from her glass. "Happened to me and look how I turned out,"

"Ha!"

The two roommates enjoyed a second round of margaritas and began to cook the tamales and boil the tea. Sango's face was flushed and she was giggling more and smiling, leaning against the counter, but Jade was still relatively sober. Her alcohol resistance had always been on the stronger side and it almost seemed even stronger lately. Her eyes rested on the fridge; she could go for a third drink. She placed her glass down instead. Jade poured the nearly-boiling tea into a small pitcher for easy serving. Sango opened the oven to check on the tamales Kagome made that morning.

"Wow, that margarita stuff is stroooooong," Sango sang, taking the hot pan from Jade and placing it in the sink to let it soak with the other dirty dishes. "Are you feeling it?"

"Hm? A little. I'm kind of used to it."

"Right, right, Mexican,"

"Ahaha, I meant that because I drink regularly, but that too." Jade laughed heartily. Sango snorted and shook her head, leaning against the counter again to wait out the final minutes of the tamales' cooking time. She tilted her head, her brown hair falling to the side.

"You look pretty tonight, Jade." Sango said as she pointed at her friend.

"You're tipsy." Jade replied quickly, stroking her hair absentmindedly.

"No, no, really. You're wearing the fitted jeans and yellow shirt I helped you pick out and they look really good on you. Look at your arms - they're starting to look muscular!"

"Huh," Jade held her arms outward with her palms facing up and then slowly turned them until her palms were facing down. She had noticed the weight loss because her old clothes stopped fitting, but she hadn't realized her muscles were detailed. They definitely did look more toned now that Sango pointed it out. Jade flipped her palms upward again and stared at her right hand. The cuts on her fingers from the crushed test tube had nearly healed up and the major cut on her palm was itchy and the scab was already flaking off. She wasn't sure how to feel about her body's faster healing process.

"Your hair parted to the side is really cute, too."

"Uh...thanks," Jade almost blurted out that Naraku had suggested it, but that wouldn't have helped her overall argument of not having a thing for him. The images of the sketched woman in Naraku's book flashed in her mind again. She hadn't thought about them for nearly a week. Then she remembered Naraku screaming and whimpering in his sleep - Kikyou. "Hey, Sango, do you know what a keek-yo is? I think I'm saying it right,"

"Kikyou?" Sango shrugged. "Well, it's usually a girl's name in Japanese. It means bellflower. Why?"

"I overheard it during one of Ginta's anime rants and I completely forgot to ask him. I trust your knowledge a little more, though." Jade hated lying, but she didn't want to make it out to be more than it was. It was a confirmation, though. The flower the sketched woman held was bell-shaped. She must be Kikyou. Who was Kikyou? Jade had no idea and had no intentions of pursuing an answer while Naraku was coming to terms with his thesis drama.

 _'Plus, Sango might accuse me of being jealous of Naraku's ex or some shit and if she lets that slip when he's here, I should just go ahead and kill myself for him.'_ Jade's stomach roiled at the thought of Naraku finding out that she knew about the young woman from his book. He adamantly denied having any emotional attachment to his guinea pig; Jade couldn't begin to imagine his reaction to a girl from his past.

Just as Sango turned the oven off and placed the tray of cooked tamales, rice, and beans on the stove, the apartment door opened and Kagome's bubbly voice was chattering with a deeper voice.

"Look who I found," Kagome sang, pointing at Naraku, who closed the door behind himself.

"You didn't find me; we happened to arrive at the same time." he corrected, removing his shoes and stepping into the living room area. He adjusted the sleeves on his dark gray turtleneck sweater while his eyes slowly scanned the room. He specifically stared at Jade's stream equipment until he tensed up and looked down. Kirara was purring as she rubbed against his legs.

 _'He really doesn't like anything touching him,'_ Jade noted.

"Oh, are you allergic?" Kagome asked him, pointing at Kirara.

"Please say yes," Sango muttered bitterly under her breath. Jade snorted, but decided not to engage her on that comment.

"No, I knew it was here. I didn't think it would be so...affectionate. Cats generally aren't."

"She," Sango almost spat the word out. "Is a very affectionate cat."

"Make it stop." Naraku ordered, mimicking Sango's tone on the word, "It."

"Am I going to have to lock up the knives?" Jade asked half-jokingly. The other half of her was considering locking herself away in her bathroom instead.

"I don't need a weapon to take him out," Sango retorted confidently.

"Ooooh, catty." Naraku cooed back as he crossed his arms. "I was thinking the same about you."

"Oh! Look! Common ground! You both fantasize about killing each other in the same way!"

"Jade, nothing you say is going to change my mind." Sango stated sternly, her eyes never leaving Naraku's. Jade inhaled deeply. Where Sango was serious, Naraku had a smirk tugging on his lips. Sango wasn't one to accept being mocked and Naraku's entire existence relied on him mocking others and being condescending. It was a battle of titans at this point and Jade was an ant in comparison.

"I'm flattered that you think so much about me, Sango. Though, to be honest, I kind of forget you exist until I see you."

"Hey, Naraku, you said you would try harder," Jade warned, pointing at him. He glanced at her and then back to Sango. He flashed a smile and bowed his head.

"Fine." he relented.

"What did you bribe him with?" Sango asked Jade incredulously.

"Money." Jade and Naraku answered simultaneously. Even their tones matched. Sango looked at one and then the other and then shook her head.

"I just hope this is a dream." she griped.

"Do you dream about me often?" Naraku asked quickly and teasingly. Jade couldn't stop her giggles and Naraku seemed to be amused by them. She didn't care what anyone said; Naraku was fantastic when it came to annoying someone.

"I need more alcohol." Sango turned to the fridge to grab the bottle of margarita.

"Want some?" Jade asked Naraku, only to mentally kick herself. How could she forget the hotel so easily?

"No. I'm here for your tea." he responded to Jade's relief, now looking back at Jade's stream setup. "What do you have planned?"

"It's a FPS game called The Forest. We crash land on an island full of cannibal mutants and we have to survive,"

"Can we kill them?"

"Bruh, you can eat them."

"Excellent." Naraku flashed her a grin, choosing the chair at the end of the table against the wall. He sat down and exhaled heavily, his grin and pride disappearing entirely. He still seemed worn down. Normally, every movement and breath of Naraku's was controlled, but since Colorado, he seemed stretched thin, as if every movement and interaction drained his life force.

"We made Mexican food and we don't care if you like it or not." Sango announced, placing tamales on individual plates.

"I could use the calories since I worked out earlier." Naraku answered, leaning forward as Jade slid behind him to sit in the chair beside him. She leaned closer to him.

"Are you okay? You just disappeared the other day after the fire." she whispered. Naraku glanced at her and then crossed his arms.

"I wasn't feeling well. I'm better."

"Okay." Jade wasn't convinced, but there was no reason to push it.

Dinner was not as tense as Jade expected. Naraku was actually quiet, seemingly studying the tastes of the tamale and Jade's chili pepper tea. Sango was telling stories about her vet job, mostly cute stories, and Kagome would ask her questions. Kagome also informed Jade that Naraku had known for a while that she was her other roommate. That was the only time Naraku spoke and he did so only to tell Jade that she should have let him grade a few of Kagome's lab reports, otherwise, he never would have suspected it. Jade shrugged...and Naraku elbowed her playfully. She saw Sango's suspicious stare and refrained from rolling her eyes.

"I figured you wanted to learn the controls before we went live," Jade said to Naraku as she carried the monitors to the dining table after she helped clean up. She placed one in the spot where Naraku sat for dinner and the other at the end of the table. It was easier for her to fix lighting with a plain white wall behind them as opposed to an open room.

"That would be optimal." Naraku agreed, placing his cup of tea in his dinner spot. "Do I have to be on camera?"

 _'Fucker. He's drank four cups and he won't even say he likes it.'_ Jade lamented silently. She didn't take pride in many things, but her variation of Mama's tea recipe was sacred to their family and to patrons who dared to try it.

"No, but I think it's the best way to go."

"Why? Aren't people more interested in the game?"

"Both. They like seeing our expressions."

"I don't make many of those."

"No, but you're attractive with a deep voice and you're Japanese, so my weeaboo base will probably throw money just to hear you say something in Japanese, even if you're insulting them. Trust me." Jade insisted as she pressed her palms together in a semi-begging stance. Naraku tilted his head.

"You've been styling your hair the way I showed you." Naraku pointed out, changing the subject and catching Jade off guard.

"Uh, yeah," Jade answered uncertainly. She spotted Sango quickly turning around from the kitchen sink and internally cringed. None of this was helping Jade's case and she suspected Naraku was well aware of what he was doing.

"Are you doing it because you like it or to appease me?"

"I know what you're doing." Jade shot back, turning on the two laptops. One was hers and the other was one of The Pack's spare gaming laptops.

"I know you do, but does she?" he continued in a low voice. Jade's hesitation to answer was all the confirmation he needed. Naraku raised his voice. "Did you also dress nicely for me?"

"Yeah, Jade, you don't dress like that often," Sango called out as she walked towards the bigger couch. Kagome agreed that Jade's outfit was cute. Either Kagome hadn't picked up the hints or she was intentionally keeping away from the sub-conversation they were having. Jade's mouth opened, but nothing came out. Her face burned when she heard Naraku's deep chuckles. She quickly walked down the hallway to her room, closing her door to block out Naraku's laughter.

"Oh, Jade, don't," Kagome called out soothingly, but Jade was already committed. She quickly pulled her shirt and jeans off her body, replacing them with a plain gray T-shirt that was now three sizes too big and her favorite pair of loose, frayed, faded jeans. Lastly, she ruffled her hair wildly until she found the middle part and brushed the strands into place. She caught a glimpse of herself in her mirror on the other side of her room. She hadn't realized her hands were balled into fists.

 _'What a dumb thing to get mad about.'_ she scolded herself. For a moment, she entertained the idea of putting on her original outfit and fixing her hair back to the side, but ultimately, it sounded annoying.

"Oh," Naraku choked out with slight shock when Jade walked back into the room. "You really were angry."

"Aw, I wish you had kept your hair. It was cute." Kagome said worriedly. Jade shrugged, returning to her original mission of launching the game to teach Naraku how to play.

"Jade, I'm sorry." Sango added cautiously.

"I'm over it. I like being comfortable for streams anyway."

After handing Naraku his wireless keyboard and mouse, Jade sat next to him and launched the game using a save file she created a few months earlier. She rescued his character from the ruins of the plane and helped him open the scattered suitcases for cloth, medications, and other needed items. As she expected, he began fitting pieces of the puzzles together. He used his sticks, ropes, and rocks to create an axe, a bow, some arrows, and Jade showed him how to upgrade them.

 _'Either I'm right and he's going to be a comedic gold mine or I'm wrong and he's a serial killer...probably both.'_ Jade told herself. On the upside, Sango and Kagome did laugh at things Naraku did. Jade was able to cast her screen to the TV to let them watch the game from her perspective. The hardest Sango laughed was when Naraku was being beaten by seven different cannibals and Jade had to swing in and save him. If Sango could find it in herself to laugh at his antics, then Jade was sure her viewers would, too.

"Here," Jade said, offering a headset to Naraku. "I'll do the introduction and what not. You just...be you."

"What else could I be?" he asked.

"Nice." Sango interjected.

"Why is she allowed to antagonize me, but you scold me if I do it?" Naraku asked Jade, pointing from Sango to himself.

"You still do it anyway." Jade responded in a small voice.

"But you don't scold her."

"Sango, stop hurting his feelings." Jade snapped playfully, activating the five minute countdown on her page and choosing a song to play for her viewers. Sango snickered, but Naraku glared at Jade. She shrugged at him. He was going to have to deal with it.

Within seconds, the chatroom came to life with howls and excitement. The countdown ended. Jade introduced herself, Naraku, stated the game they were going to play, and dove right into the game. The plane crashed. Their characters woke up. Jade grabbed the plane's emergency ax first, then grabbed food, medication, and the passenger list of the flight. Naraku did the same, but grabbed his ax last.

"Our welcoming committee has arrived," Naraku announced, though Jade already heard the cannibals' gasping cackles and shrieks.

"Let's greet 'em," Jade said in a gruff voice, leaping out of the plane to start looting the scattered suitcases while chopping away at any of the cannibals who came near. Most of the time, the early-game cannibals would just watch and then run off to gather their friends for a full-on attack, but Naraku had already chopped one cannibal down.

"I need this for reasons," he chopped the cannibal's head off and added it to his inventory. A second cannibal, a woman, shrieked at him and swung her arms, but he backed up while chuckling. "I think she's upset, Jade."

"You murdered her boyfriend."

"He hit on me first."

"Alright, I know a decent place to build our first cabin. Let's go."

She had chosen the edge of a cliff overlooking a lake. That gave them a source of water and fish. Jade's character grunted as he chopped away at a tree. There was a loud explosion and then the frame rate of the game dropped for a moment, briefly turning her view into pixels. Jade continued clicking to finish chopping the tree. A second explosion echoed and dropped the frame rate again.

"What's going on over there? Pearl Harbor?" Jade asked as her character lifted two logs onto his shoulder.

"I found a box of dynamite in a village, you racist."

"Says the guy nuking the island locals," Jade replied.

"To be fair, they wish to eat me." Naraku said, tossing another stick of dynamite to finish off the last group of cannibals.

"Come help me finish the cabin."

When Naraku showed up, Jade brought up the chatroom on her laptop screen, keeping the game active on her monitor. The chatroom was relatively active and many viewers were extremely interested in WeedWolf's friend.

"Do you mind answering some of our viewers questions?" Jade asked him. "You don't have to."

"Of course. I love talking about myself." he replied, smirking when he heard Sango make a comment. Jade cringed when the sound of another explosion went off in her headset. Her person was on the ground, waiting to be revived by his dynamite-happy partner.

"Revive me."

"No."

"You dick." Jade said with a grin. "First question: are you single?"

"I'm unavailable." Naraku said, picking up the logs his dynamite explosion created. Jade placed a delay on the chatroom so she could read other questions.

"What do you do for a living?"

"I currently teach a chemistry lab."

"I help." Jade said to the camera as she gave it a thumbs up. That made the chatroom explode even more.

"You distract." Naraku revived her character at the last second. When her character stood up, she saw the newly-built gazebo sitting on the edge of the cliff. Jade shook her head. The gazebo, while definitely a building option, was pointless for the overall gameplay, but something told her Naraku had a purpose for it.

"My favorite color is blue, my turn-ons are people telling me to go fuck myself, my turn-offs are friendship and sympathy, I like chicken, and I'm an asshole. Next question."

"Is it okay if this one viewer calls you Big Daddy?" Jade snorted.

"No."

"Too bad! Someone named Big Daddy just subscribed and donated! Ahahaha!" she laughed heartily.

"I don't want their money." Naraku complained flatly.

"Oooh! Lizard!" Jade switched to her spear as she ran towards the lumbering creature. "Gimmie your goo!"

Jade built a meat rack and set up several turtle shells to catch freshwater for them to drink. She also built a cabinet to store medicines and small snacks found from missing passengers' luggage. Naraku, on the other hand, figured out how to make his own explosives and he also found out the explosives could be attached to severed cannibal heads. He also set up several traps to catch cannibals to add to his, "collection."

"Ow." Naraku grumbled. "This cannibal is wearing a peacock tail of arms, legs, and heads with lit candles on them. Can I make a costume like that?"

"No, but if you burn their bodies for bones, you can wear their bones as armor."

"Oh, so my collection will come in handy. Good."

"That cannibal you're fighting is one of the leaders. If you kill him, you get to claim his sweet club." Jade followed Naraku's name on her screen and stumbled upon the scene of him fighting the cannibal leader with a spear. He would jab the leader a few times and back up to dodge a swing of the club. Jade shot flaming arrows at any other cannibals that tried to intervene.

"I like the hands attached to the skull. Very artistic." Naraku quipped after picking up the club of his defeated foe. Jade snickered and collected her arrows from the bodies of the lesser cannibals.

They both returned to their home and Jade began laughing when she saw the various animal heads nailed to the outside of their cabin. The gazebo had lamps made from human skulls and candles lined up within and around it. The inside of the cabin had various animal skins, skull lamps and skull lanterns, and several child-like drawings stuck to the wall.

"You should be a professional interior decorator." Jade chirped.

"Is there a child we're supposed to be looking for? I found these around the island." Naraku asked, poking the drawings with a stick.

"Yeah. He's our son."

"He clearly has come in contact with the cannibals and watched them torture the other passengers." Naraku pointed to the specific drawing showing that scene. "I'm sure he's fine."

"Probably." Jade agreed, saving the game in case the internet lagged or dropped.

"Oh, I built a teleportation device." he announced as he left the cabin. Jade was sure her expression was ridiculous, but she followed him without question. He walked to the side of the cabin and looked up. Jade did the same.

"That's a bench." Jade pointed out plainly when she saw the wooden bench on the roof of the cabin.

"Watch," Naraku insisted. He tapped the key to prompt his character to sit on the bench. His character sat in midair and then teleported to the bench on the roof. He looked over at Jade. "What?"

"..." Jade had covered her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking as she continued her silent laughter. When she looked up and into the camera, her eyes glistened with tears. "I left you alone...for ten minutes...and you built a bench on the roof!" she tried to breathe, but the laughter was too strong. Sango and Kagome were laughing with her and the chatroom erupted with comments like, "He's my hero," and, "This is the highlight right here," and, "Wow, what inspired that and why does it work?"

"I don't know why you're laughing; it's actually useful. We can build more cabins on top of this one and make a castle, essentially." he explained, his tone sounding offended.

"I'm not saying it's stupid...okay, it's fucking stupid, but it's brilliant. How did you figure this out?" Jade wiped the tears away and made her character sit on the bench. Suddenly, she was on the roof.

"I built a bench for the gazebo and I realized that I didn't have to be right next to the bench to prompt my character to sit on it. If I was a distance away from it, my character would teleport. So, I set the schematic for the bench on the roof and then I built it from the ground because the game allowed me to."

"Of course you would figure that out." she sighed. She glanced at the chatroom and spotted a few comments of, "Aw, he's so proud of it," and, "I want to hug him. He's an adorable, murderous genius."

 _'This might be one of those times where I'm too right.'_ Jade thought with slight terror. She wanted her viewers to like him because they were more likely to donate; she didn't want them to start obsessing over him. It wasn't a prominent issue in the community, but it was an issue nonetheless and every gaming community suffered from it to some degree. The Pack had a few instances of crazed fans assaulting packmates and Jade received insane rape/proclamations-of-love messages every so often. She was sure Naraku could handle himself, but she also had no idea if he could handle massive amounts of sexual innuendoes being aimed at him, either.

"So, I have two questions," Naraku stated as he began using sticks and cannibal limbs to build an effigy.

"Yeah?"

"First question; we can build a house-boat complete with a paddle, so why don't we do that and leave the island?"

"Our son is missing, remember? We can't leave without him."

"It sucks to be him, then."

"Beautiful."

"No son of mine would allow himself to be captured alive." Naraku continued with a grin. "He would perform seppuku like a good little Japanese boy."

"Hahahahaha!" Jade shook her head and lit his effigy on fire before he could finish it. In response, he stabbed her with his spear.

"Second question; why do they not have dicks?"

"The answer to that also pertains to the storyline of us finding our son."

"I no longer care. I can make another." Naraku said flippantly. Jade shook her head and looked at the chatroom again.

"A few of them are offering to bear your children," Jade said slowly. It was more than a few.

"Unnecessary. I will clone myself because no one is worthy enough for this body."

"If I didn't know any better, I would think you're serious." Jade snorted.

"I am."

"Last question and then we're going spelunking," Jade scrolled and found one she liked. "Do you have any pets?"

"I have a hostage that happens to be furry." Naraku answered carefully, acting as if the subject was taboo. "Does that count?"

"He has a guinea pig, guys. His name is Hanger Dan."

"Call him anything but that."

"Popchop?"

"Alright, that one might actually be worse," Naraku admitted, ignoring Sango's declaration that she would call his guinea pig, "Popchop," and following Jade's character around with his torch, trying to light her on fire.

"Ahaha, thought so." Jade glanced at the chat, allowing Naraku to ignite her character. "Everyone who said his furry hostage was his dick should be ashamed of themselves! Ashamed! Terrible dick jokes are not allowed here!"

"I must say, I agree. Dick jokes are such low-hanging fruit." Naraku said.

"Thank-" Jade's smile disappeared as she pointed at her guest heatedly. "You can get the fuck out of my apartment right now. That was awful." she shook her head when she heard Sango and Kagome giggling about it. Naraku looked absolutely proud of himself. When he cleared his throat, Jade prepared herself.

"My dick doesn't quite fit that description, anyway. I manscape." Naraku announced as his eyes met Jade's. "Right, Jade?"

Jade's smile felt like it was ripping her face in half. "My memory is a little hazy. It must not have been very impressive."

"The red color on your cheeks says otherwise."

"You have the biggest di- ego," the look on her face must have been priceless, because Naraku erupted into a fit of laughter that seemed to mock Jade's entire life's story. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, waiting for the moment to pass. Sango and Kagome had burst into laughter also. Sango was nearly crying and Kagome was trying not to snort. Jade exhaled slowly and opened her eyes. The chatroom had gone wild. She saw the phrase, "Freudian slip," blinking hundreds of times.

"What were you saying, dear?" Naraku asked her sweetly after reeling himself back in.

"Nothing." Jade answered dryly, shaking her head and looking down at her lap.

 _'I can't fucking believe I did that.'_ she lamented. She heard a familiar pinging noise and looked at the screen. Someone donated ten dollars. Another ping - thirty dollars. Another with twenty. They kept going on and on and with every ping, Jade's embarrassment slowly dissolved away.

 **000000**

Sango stood in the kitchen, steadily drinking her cup of water. Her throat was raw from all the laughing she had done that night. Overall, she had a good time watching Jade's stream, but part of her couldn't help but to feel dirty about encouraging anything about Naraku. She only agreed to allow him in their apartment because Jade asked and she rarely asked for any favors.

 _'His tone was different with her.'_ Sango remembered making that mental note. Naraku was still a provocative asshole, and arrogant, and controlling, but his tone with Jade was far more...relaxed? Softer? She couldn't quite explain it other than it was different. What surprised her the most was the fact that he laughed with Jade. Laughed!

Exhaling loudly, Sango placed her cup in the sink before turning the kitchen light off. She stood at the end of the bigger couch where Naraku had stretched out and fallen asleep. Had his chest not risen from his breathing, she would have thought he had died. His keys were lightly clutched in his right hand, which rested on his chest.

"Hm," Sango opened her mouth to wake him, but she thought twice and closed her mouth.

 _'Jade handled him all night, so she can handle him now.'_ Sango headed down the hallway to Jade's room. It was cracked open, so Sango pushed it open a little farther and stuck her head in.

"Hey, he's out cold on the couch," Sango said in a low voice. Jade reared up from behind her desk, frowning.

"He said he was leaving."

"It looks like he was going to and then fell asleep."

"Oh, okay. I'll go wake him up."

"Um, just leave him. It's really late." Sango insisted quickly, having a sudden change of heart.

"Are you sure?" Jade stood up slowly. "You said-"

"I know, I know." Sango interrupted, waving her hand. "But it's late. He's probably too tired to be driving anywhere. It safest to let him sleep."

"Thanks, Sango."

"You're welcome. I know I won't hear that from him."

"Nnnnope."

"Ugh, what do you see in him?" Sango asked flippantly.

"Someone who's hurt." Jade answered seriously. They stared at one another silently until Sango finally broke eye contact first as she nodded.

"I guess that's fair. Good night, Jade."

"Night, Sango."

 _'Someone who's hurt, huh?'_ Sango recited in her head as she settled under her blankets. She remembered what Rosa had said to her about Jade's affinity for those who were cast out; it was something she had done from a young age and although Jade denied it, Sango wondered if her parents abandoning her in the hospital right after her birth really affected her. It made sense. According to Rosa, they left her with nothing, not even a name, and from the pictures Sango saw, Jade looked nothing like her grandmother, aunt, or cousins. _'Even though she wasn't mistreated, she isn't blind. I'm sure it affected her somewhat.'_ Then her thoughts shifted back to how Jade interacted with Naraku earlier that night. They were almost like kids.

 **000000**

 _'I don't hear anything.'_ Naraku realized. _'Where...I never went home!'_ He opened his eyes, blinking several times. The room was dark, but he knew where he was now; Jade's apartment. The last thing he remembered was rubbing his eyes and then nothing. He knew he was tired, but that was a legitimate loss of consciousness and he didn't like it. He squeezed his hands, feeling his keys in his right. _'A blanket is on me.'_ Naraku let out a quiet exhale. _'I should leave.'_ He slowly sat up, feeling for his phone, but he stopped when he saw something glowing. It was faint, so he blinked and rubbed his eyes, but he was actually seeing it. _'What is it?'_ He moved closer and clamped his hand over his mouth to stop the gasp.

It was Jade!

 _'How?'_ Naraku leaned closer, thinking that her phone was causing it or that she was, for some fucking reason, wearing glow-in-the-dark clothing, but the faint glow was pink and it was emitting from the center of her hand, branching out to her fingers. His mind immediately connected it to his little experiment. When he mixed the purple and pink solutions, the mixture glowed faintly pink in the dark. _'It's her veins! It's in her bloodstream!'_ Naraku reached out to wake her, but he stopped, letting his hand hover over her. What was he going to say? Do? He pulled his hand away and pulled out his phone, searching for the lamp at the end of the couch. He turned it on and walked back to her. He waited another moment, staring at her right hand. He couldn't see the glow and the cuts from breaking the test tube three days prior were nearly healed!

"Jade," Naraku placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Hm?" she turned on her back and stared up at him groggily. "What?"

"You should go to bed. I'm going home." he told her. She nodded and inhaled as she sat up. He followed her to her room, watching her crawl into her bed. Naraku looked around quickly. Her room was plain outside of her desk with her gaming rig and her bed. She had a few items of clothing thrown over her chair, but everything else seemed neat.

"You don't have to if you don't want to. I know you're tired." Jade said, stifling a yawn.

"I'm fine. Go to back to sleep." he replied. Jade nodded again and said goodnight. Naraku waited for her eyes to close before flipping the switch and closing her door behind him.

 _'Has she not noticed it?'_ he wondered. He could see Jade being so fed up with her ailments and medical bills that she would keep something like that secret, but it was barely noticeable, even in complete darkness. The slightest bit of light would make it difficult to see. It was also possible that she had no idea.

Naraku drove home as quickly as he could. He tossed his keys into the decorative bowl near his door and marched straight to his office. He kept the lights off so he could observe the glow of the mixed solution. It was a stronger glow than what Jade emitted, but it was the same eerie pink hue. He switched the desk lamp on and began writing another entry in his notebook. Whatever happened in Jade's body, Naraku was positive he recreated it in the tube.

 _'If it healed her injuries and dissolved, then it's in her bloodstream for now. Whenever they mix with blood, they crystalize it and then liquify, creating more solution, so why isn't it doing the same in her bloodstream?'_ Naraku sat back in his chair and huffed. Technically, they had crystallized over her wounds, but why stop there? _'Perhaps it's a ratio difference. My experiment has dealt with small, controlled amounts of blood. The human body is constantly replacing dying cells, so the tiny drop I gave her might not be able to keep up with her body.'_

"I wonder," he whispered softly, staring at the three tubes. He turned on the lamp and began searching his desk drawers until he found his pocket knife. He unsheathed the blade and pulled the left sleeve of his sweater up. He jerked the blade across the top of his arm quickly, opening and closing his fist until he saw the blood welling up from the shallow cut. Naraku used a small pipette and sucked up a drop of the glowing mixture. Gently, he squeezed only half of the drop onto the cut. Next, he pulled his phone out and hit record on his camera.

 _'This fucking burns!'_ Naraku kept his mouth closed and tried not to shatter his teeth against each other, but it felt like he lit his arm on fire! As he predicted, the blood the mixture came in contact with was sizzling and darkening. _'No wonder Jade was screaming and crying; her entire body probably felt like this.'_ He remembered feeling how hot her skin was when he held her. He was amazed she possibly sat through an hour of the sensation before going on the ten-minute rampage. Naraku looked back down at the cut and leaned forward. The edges of his blood were already solidifying.

When the burning sensation stopped, Naraku assumed the crystals were done forming. He stopped recording and picked up his magnifying glass to see if they formed sharp crystals like they had in the past. They were not only sharp, but they linked together like a zipper, which was how Jade described hers.

"And, finally," Naraku turned the lamp off. "It glows." The cut was a thin stripe of pink. It had a stronger fluorescence than Jade's, but Naraku assumed that was because his was on the surface.

After covering his new experiment with gauze, Naraku decided that being awake at five in the morning on Sunday was not how he wished to start the day. He changed into his pajamas, dropping his clothes on the floor before sliding into bed under his sheet and blanket. His room was cooler than Jade's apartment and her apartment was filled with the scent sharp scent of peppers and the gentle scent of tea.

 _'Her tea was delicious.'_ he closed his eyes, ignoring the part of himself that wished he had never left her couch.

"Naraku," her voice was soft and so was her hand when she swept some of his hair aside. "I knew you were sick. You stubborn idiot."

"I'm fine, Kikyou." Naraku replied tiredly.

"You're clearly running a fever, but sure, you're completely fine." Kikyou said with sweetened sarcasm. "Idiot."

"You almost sound concerned for me." Naraku said smugly. He heard her make a sound of disgust before gasping and holding his arm.

"What did you do to your arm?" she asked accusingly. Naraku opened his eyes and sat up, looking around his dark room urgently. His body trembled.

He was alone.


	23. His Hardened Heart

**His Hardened Heart**

 _'There!'_ Jade's fingers tapped the buttons of her arcade stick swiftly. The announcer screamed, "Counter Breaker!" Jade ended her combo after taking eighty-three percent of her opponent's life bar. She backed away and waited. In the split second it took her opponent to move, she countered again and ended the match without taking a hit. Her heart was pounding with excitement, but her mind was clouded with concern. She didn't want to complain about her wins, but having three perfect matches in a row was next to impossible. Even if she was facing off against someone who never played before, they would have landed at least one hit. The opponents she just faced were in the top thirty of the online ranks, so they weren't casual players. _'Why is this happening?'_

"Hey, Jade, what time do you work tonight?" Sango asked, knocking on her open door.

"Six to midnight."

"Okay. Kagome and I were thinking about ordering pizza."

"You eat pizza?" Jade quipped with a smile.

"I have the occasional craving. I plan on working it off in the morning."

"Alright."

"Any good deals?"

"If you guys just want pizza, I would recommend a small or medium, unless you're feeling extra hungry."

"Well, that's the thing; we're going to have Miroku and Inuyasha over, so we need something for four people." Sango explained shyly.

"Oh," Jade looked down as she thought for a moment. "We have a deal where two large pizzas are cheaper than two mediums."

"Are you mad?"

"What? No. Why do you think that?"

"Well, you asked for permission about Naraku coming over, but we didn't ask you about-"

"He isn't my boyfriend and he's a dick, so it's fine." Jade insisted. "I'm not mad; just confused about some of my online stats."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. There's just a few numbers that don't make sense."

"How is that? Doesn't the game record what you do? How can it mess up?"

"It's probably a bug." Jade shrugged.

"True. I didn't think about that." Sango turned and waved to Jade, who waved back while sighing heavily. Her stats of the day reflected nearly one-hundred percent across the board. Button inputs, breakers, counters - she was nailing nearly all of them.

 _'It's me. I'm doing that.'_

After pulling her hair back into a ponytail, Jade pulled her black uniform cap on and exited her car. She opened the door and was blasted with a wall of heat. In the summer, it was a hellish nightmare, but in the late, cold fall, it was welcomed. Koga slid a pizza into the conveyor oven and nodded at Jade.

"Hey," he chirped.

"Hey." Jade walked over to the computer and typed in her ID number to clock in. "Busy?"

"No. Tuesday nights, even when it's cold, aren't pizza nights." Koga patted the front of his apron. A cloud of flour puffed with each strike.

"Is that a delivery?" Jade asked, pointing at the oven.

"Pick-up." Koga replied, glancing at the clock on the wall. "Ginta and Hakkaku should be here soon."

"Both of them? We're going to be fighting for tips tonight."

"Ginta is in-store tonight. I figured I would drop the sauce ladle between you and Hakkaku and let you guys use it as a weapon to determine who will have the tips tonight." Koga stated with a wide grin.

"Cool." Jade huffed. "I don't mind splitting with him tonight, actually. I think it will benefit us."

"Okay. After I count the money, that's between you two."

"Ayyyyyyyyyyy!" a loud voice boomed a few minutes later as Hakkaku threw open the backdoor. Ginta followed behind him, shaking his head with annoyance.

"It doesn't look to be a busy night, fellas." Koga announced.

"That's fine. I'm not feeling too hot." Ginta sighed heavily, typing in his ID.

"That's 'cause you ugly." Hakkaku replied in a bubbly tone. Ginta promptly ignored him and removed his sweater, hanging it beside the computer.

"It sucks that Jade is finally back and it's dead as fuck." Ginta said.

"Oh, don't worry, once November hits, we'll need three drivers instead of two, and this place will be smokin'." Koga replied, pulling the pizza from the conveyor belt with the wooden-handled peel. He slid the pizza into the box, slicing it quickly and closing it. Ginta placed the box under the warming lamps and the four friends all sighed heavily while staring at each other.

"Soooooo, is no one from The Pack going to regionals this weekend? For any of the games?" Hakkaku asked curiously, straightening his hat on his head.

"No one's asked." Koga replied, shaking his head. "If they're going, it's for personal gain."

"It's a pretty big prize this year for KI." Ginta muffled a cough with his arm. "Fifteen thousand for first place, or a scholarship if you choose,"

"Fifteen thousand?" Jade repeated, leaning forward to look at Ginta's face.

"Aaaahahaha, now she's interested," Hakkaku pointed out slyly.

"Yeah." Ginta nodded.

"I thought you said you couldn't." Koga stated. "You said you were in pain."

"I was, but I'm a lot better now." Jade insisted, her mind racing with images of her ability to see the first frame of every movement in the game. If she could do that, then she could certainly scratch the top eight. "I'll go."

"Really? It's a two-day event." Koga told her.

"That's fine. I want to go. I'll go for us."

"Alright then." Koga smiled. "I'll find you a flight and a room."

"Fuck yeah!" Hakkaku high fived Jade.

A slow hour later, Jade cleared her throat as she stepped out of her car with the delivery bag. Sango called and Koga gave it to her to handle. She walked upstairs and knocked on the door, only to frown and look down.

 _'Knocking on my own door is weird.'_ she thought. The door opened and Sango's wide smiling face greeted her.

"You could have walked in! You live here!" Sango laughed.

"Yeah, I just realized that. Habit."

"Can you come in for a minute?"

"Oh yeah. We're dead." Jade stepped inside and removed the boxes from her delivery bag. She placed the pizzas on the dining room table and when she turned around, a man at similar height with Koga with short black hair and an innocent expression was staring back at her.

"S-Sango," the man stuttered. "You didn't tell me your roommate was WeedWolf!"

"I didn't know you knew who she was!" Sango replied urgently. "Jade, this is Miroku."

"WeedWolf? The frumpy girl who runs with that dumb-ass Koga?" another voice shot. Jade leaned to the side and saw another man, shorter, but with exceptionally long white hair. Sesshomaru's face immediately flashed in her mind, though this younger man had more of a boyish look in place of Sesshomaru's mature, feminine features.

"What did you just call her?" Kagome shouted angrily from her room. Jade flinched. She hadn't heard Kagome raise her voice before. It was slightly unsettling.

"She's fine!" the white-haired one shouted back.

"If you're not related to Sesshomaru, then I'm not Hispanic." Jade stated, pointing at the argumentative man with a smile. His eyes widened and once Jade recognized the golden color, she knew she was right.

"Whoa! The ultimate insult!" Miroku laughed, placing his hand on his stomach.

"I meant it as a question, kind of." Jade insisted.

"Yeah, well, being related to him is an insult!" the angry one snapped.

"Why? Because he's prettier?" Jade decided to take a stab at him. He was in her home and about to eat her pizza. His face reddened and his eyes widened more.

"Oooooooh!" Miroku was now covering his mouth.

"Stop instigating!" Sango lightly slapped his arm. "Inuyasha, she pays bills here, so don't expect to insult her and get away unscathed."

"Oh, he's about to have a real problem when I'm done in here!" Kagome insisted heatedly.

"Well, I'm a fan of your videos." Miroku explained, pointing at himself. He then pointed at Inuyasha. "He doesn't really have an issue with you. It's more about Koga."

"I'm not shocked." Jade replied, glancing at her phone. "I should probably go, though."

"Here!" Sango held out two twenty dollar bills. "Split the change if you want."

"Okay." Jade took them without a fight. She then jerked her thumb in Inuyasha's direction. "Tell Kagome that if she needs to get rid of a body I have access to hydrofluoric acid."

"Haha, she will happy to hear it." Sango snorted. A smug expression appeared on her face as she pointed at Jade. "That sounded a little like Naraku,"

"You know what?" Jade laughed as she opened the door. "Look up my video called, "Cannibal Wolf," which was made over a year ago, and then try to tell me I don't sound like me!"

 **000000**

Naraku stifled a yawn with his hand as he flipped the switch to turn off the fume hood's exhaust fan. He pushed the glass door up and leaned forward to examine the spinach leaves dangling from tiny tubes.

 _'They're translucent now, but they still have some cells.'_ he noted. Naraku took individual pictures with his phone and then began writing his observations into his notebook. He heard the door to the lab rattle, but he didn't look up. It only took a couple seconds of tentative silence for him to figure out it was Jade.

"Hey," she finally called out, walking alongside the table towards him. "What are you doing?"

"An experiment." Naraku answered, continuing to write.

"Oooookay. Well, do you need me to do anything before I leave tomorrow?"

"Leave?" Naraku finally paused and looked up at her.

"Yeah, I'm going to a tournament this weekend. I won't be back until late Sunday." she explained.

"Oh." he replied softly. "There's nothing to do until those are cleansed of their cells."

"Are those spinach leaves?" Jade quipped curiously, striding over to the fume hood to look closer.

"Yes."

"Is this a new weed recipe or something?"

"No." Naraku slid his hands into the pockets of his lab coat and turned around. "When you look at them, do they remind you of anything?"

"Um, no," Jade scratched her head. "I mean, they have veins,"

"Yes. They have a large one that branches out into smaller ones,"

"Like bodies?"

"Exactly." Naraku looked at her. "I'm cleaning out the plant cells, but the cellulose structure will remain."

"So, what's the point?" Jade looked entirely confused.

"I'm recreating an experiment that was conducted at the institution I want to move on to."

"Well, that's good. I thought you were going to summon Satan to build a new demon or something."

"Heh, the goal is to graft human heart tissue to the leaves." Naraku smirked, pointing to the leaves. "If all goes well, they will be a possible scaffold for beating heart tissue."

"Uh," Jade seemed to be choking on her words.

 _'She's absolutely horrified.'_ he thought humorously. Jade was looking at him as if he confirmed the part about summoning Satan. She finally blinked and glanced away aimlessly.

"Is that...legal?" she asked carefully.

"I sell weed."

"Is it ethical? Where are you getting heart tissue from? How?" the questions poured from her like a faucet. "Why are you...Naraku,"

"Calm yourself, dear. I have authorization through Bruce. Until we receive a response about my thesis work, I've absolutely nothing to do. So, it's either this or I will take my frustrations out on everything else around me...according to Bruce."

"You do that anyway."

"That's child's play; I could be so much worse."

"True." Jade sighed heavily. "Alright. I guess I'll go now."

"What was your reason for coming in here?" Naraku inquired, realizing she hadn't done or grabbed anything. Jade walked to the door and shrugged dramatically.

"I haven't seen you for a bit. I just wanted to make sure you're alive."

"You're my assistant, not my mother."

"Oh, eat me, Naraku." Jade bit back playfully. "Also, your share of the stream money should drop in your account on Monday. A video will be made of the highlights, posted on YouTube, and you will receive a portion from that, too."

"How much am I receiving from the stream?"

"We made just over three thousand; a third goes to the community and then I just gave the rest to you."

"What about your share?"

"Just keep it and put it towards a new car." Jade urged, placing her hands together. "Don't worry about me. I owe you."

"Jade,"

"Whaaaaaat?" she gave him an exhausted look.

"Good luck." he told her calmly. Jade smiled and thanked him before leaving and closing the door behind herself.

 _'I really don't understand her.'_ Naraku complained silently. _'She is so...unlike anyone I've ever met.'_ His eyes focused on his discolored spinach leaves. She also had it backwards; he owed her.

 **000000**

Ducking under tall, cardboard cutouts of various fighting game characters, Jade made her way to the hotel elevator. Her arcade stick was tucked under her arm and her soundproof headset was clasped around her neck.

"Hey, WeedWolf!" someone called cheerfully. "Where you goin'?"

"My room! I'm not feeling well!" Jade shouted back. She strode into the first empty elevator she could find and pressed the number for her floor. She was feeling fine; she just wanted quiet time.

"I might actually win this!" she whispered excitedly to herself. Day One of pools was now over and Jade dominated her sets and easily made her way to the Winners Bracket of Top Eight. She ran to her room and placed her arcade stick on the bed, reading the various messages from Koga.

 ** _'Holy fucking shit! You knocked White Diamond into Losers!'_** was the last one he sent and it was after Jade's last match of the day. White Diamond laughed when Jade caught her in a frame trap and congratulated Jade for finally letting herself rock at a tournament. Her phone vibrated again. ** _'Oh great. Rez is talking shit. Take a look.'_** He sent a link and Jade tapped on it, inhaling deeply to prepare herself for whatever he had to say. The video began and it was Rez, a blond-haired, blue-eyed, self-proclaimed, "God's gift to mankind," being interviewed by Big Rich; a tall, chubby man with a thick brown beard. Rez shrugged while smirking when Rich asked him how he felt about the tournament.

"I mean, anything can happen, but my stats from today are the highest, so-"

"Uh, are they?" Big Rich interrupted quickly, glancing at his tablet. "I'm pretty sure our charts say WeedWolf has the highest today."

"What? There's no way." Rez spat skeptically. Jade rolled her eyes and huffed. She considered herself a fairly patient, open-minded person, but Rez was someone she couldn't see herself talking to about anything. Even Naraku had charm.

"Yeah, she's leading Winners." Big Rich insisted.

"She got lucky, as usual."

"I don't know, man. Her matches have been pretty one-sided in her favor. She took Wicked out of pools and he was in this regional's Top Eight last year and she put White Diamond, this year's Combo Breaker champion, in Losers."

"I've beaten all three of them before. I'm not worried." Rez chuckled. "Maybe Weed will throw the match to me like she did with Wicked before."

"Ooookay," Big Rich was staring at the camera like a deer in headlights. Jade closed the video and huffed, finally feeling the exhaustion replace her adrenaline.

Jade sat on her bed cross-legged, streaming matches of Gargos players to her TV with her phone. She was writing down his strengths and weaknesses when she spotted them, but just like herself with Sabrewulf, some players reinforced those weaknesses by only acting on their strengths. The more matches she watched, the more she began to worry. She could break and counter all she wanted, but Sabrewulf was at a huge disadvantage against Gargos. His wings gave him a farther reach that would keep her at bay and he could summon two little monsters that would take hits for their master and attack her while he restrained her.

"I really don't want to resort to Spinal, but I might have to." Jade murmured. He had far more resources than Sabrewulf. She grabbed her phone and messaged Wicked.

 ** _'Hey, do you have tips for Gargos? Rez is my first match tomorrow.'_** she typed.

 ** _'I don't, but Brawly does. He's been using Gargos for a while now. Did you bring your Xbox? If not, come to our room. He said he'll play some matches with you.'_**

 ** _'I'll be there in five minutes.'_** Jade stepped off her bed and pulled her shoes on, turned her TV off, grabbed her arcade stick, and left her room quickly.

When she reached their floor, their door was propped open and she heard boisterous laughter from more than two people. She knocked on the open door and waved to Wicked, who waved back.

"Hey, Weed!" Wicked sang.

"Yo," Jade replied, walking in and waving to the other three players. She recognized Brawly, but not the other two players. They knew her, though, as they congratulated her and bumped her fist.

"Alright, so you're needing some Gargos pointers?" Brawly asked, tossing his sandy blond hair from his face.

"Yeah. I play Wulf and he's limited in that match-up." Jade replied as she sat in one of the chairs in front of the TV.

"Ooh, yeah," Brawly scratched his cheek thoughtfully. "Running Uppercut is good and safe most of the time. I definitely would not use Jumping Slash unless you know it's going to confirm,"

"Hamstring seems to work well on him and his minions,"

"Yeah, but Wulf's problem is that he doesn't have an escape plan. Once you're in, you're in, and Gargos overwhelms him with minions. It's over at that point most of the time."

"That's what I've seen. I haven't played against Gargos too much and when I do, the person doesn't have a full grasp on him."

"Rez is really good with Gargos," Brawly grimaced. "So am I, but I have to respect his playstyle. Want to jump in on some matches and try some shit out?"

"Yeah." Jade nodded, plugging in her arcade stick.

As Jade suspected, her ability to see first-frame movements was helpful, but her limited experience against Gargos was getting her killed. She was putting up a fair fight, but Brawly was able to steal her meter and pull out a clutch win three out of five times. A loss was a loss, no matter how close it was. When they returned to the character selection screen, Jade inhaled deeply and exhaled loudly.

"I think you need to use someone else. Riptor operates a lot like Wulf and she has anti-air projectile options, the flame carpet to keep things honest, the dashing flame breath to clear a path, and her tail has reach." Brawly suggested, holding up a finger for every point. He then held up his other hand. "Sadira is a lot like Wulf, just in the air, she has great escape options, and her throwing knives help with the minions,"

"I have a second character," Jade said aloud. She didn't want to use Spinal until the World Cup, but without him, she might not make it to the World Cup. It was his time to shine.

"Whaaaaaat?" Wicked said incredulously.

"Who?" Brawly asked curiously.

"Spinal." Jade replied.

"Holy shit!" Wicked sprung to his feet. "Seriously? How long?"

"Since Season Two." Jade said, looking back to Brawly. "I think Spinal would do better against Gargos."

"Uh, yeah, he gives Gargos a hard time! Let's go!"

Within the first few seconds of the match, Jade could tell she preferred the Spinal match-up a lot more than the Sabrewulf one. Spinal was able to teleport out of range and then teleport right behind or in front of Gargos. His minions were far easier to swipe with a sword. It was half the stress of fighting with Sabrewulf and coupled with her first-frame sight, she destroyed Brawly's Gargos in the next set of matches. It wasn't even close.

"Fuuuuuck me," Brawly groaned, but he was smiling and laughing. "Dude, Rez isn't going to know what the fuck hit him. We won't say anything, right?"

"Oh yeah, no, we're good." Wicked agreed.

"Solid. Fuck Rez." one of the other players added.

"Yeah, he was a dick in my match." the fourth said.

"I'll get revenge for you." Jade giggled.

"Fuck yeah, man. It's an honor to have WeedWolf avenge my shitty gameplay."

The next day, Jade tried to eat a bagel and some apple slices, but her stomach wasn't up for the challenge. She pulled on her wolf cap, which was purple with green accents and gray wolf ears sticking out on top, tucked her arcade stick under her arm, and began making her way back to the large conference room where the tournament was being held. Jade slipped her phone into her pocket and found the commentator's table to sign in.

"Hey, they're asking Top Eight to meet in the corner over there. Something came up about one of the players." Big Rich explained to her as he removed his headset.

"Bad?" Jade asked.

"Nah, something about a girlfriend having a baby,"

"Definitely not Rez,"

"Hahahaha!" Big Rich pointed to the corner of the room. "Get over there!"

Jade slinked towards the corner, fist-bumping White Diamond when she saw her standing off to the side. The other Top Eight players were standing together and discussing various topics that Jade couldn't quite hear over the excitement of the entire room. White Diamond yawned and stretched her arms upward.

"Who's having a baby?" Jade asked her curiously.

"Not Rez." White Diamond said bitterly. Jade began laughing. "I guess I shouldn't complain. You're fighting him first."

"Yeah, but I think I can take him,"

"I know. That means I might have to face him to get to Grand Finals."

"Sorry." Jade shrugged. She pointed to White Diamond's hair. She had dyed her dreadlocks white to match her main character's. "I like this look on you."

"Aw, thanks. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I figured if my girl Maya can do it, then so can my black ass." White Diamond replied, snapping her fingers in a z-pattern. "You're lookin' good. You've got muscles."

"I don't know why. I haven't worked out that much."

"You could totally cosplay as Maya!"

"She's pretty, though. And taller."

"Oh, shush!" White Diamond laughed. "I take it you haven't been on the dating scene much lately? I called dibs on dating you next, remember?"

"I remember. I haven't had much time to do that. I'm cool with that, though. Life's a lot less complicated that way."

"Yeaaaaaah, comas are way less complicated than gettin' some dick...or pussy."

"Bitch,"

"Alright, guys! Sorry!" Big Rich called out loudly as he walked up. "Seethe was supposed to explain this to you guys, but he's somewhere else, so I'll explain; one of our Top Eight players, Cardex - his girlfriend went into labor and he had to bow out. So, we're going to let our ninth place player take his spot. However, that means we have to change the order in both Winners and Losers brackets. It's just a fair policy thing."

"Why?" Rez asked abruptly. "It doesn't make any sense."

"I didn't make the policy. Plus, everyone in the brackets is sitting at the same place, essentially. This change shouldn't affect anyone playing at this high of a level." Big Rich responded, the annoyance in his tone audible to everyone. Jade sighed with relief. Hopefully, someone else would knock Rez out for her so she could keep her Spinal a secret just a while longer.

"It's all good, Biggie. We're all tournament vets, so we know the rules." White Diamond interjected loudly. She tossed a few thick strands of her white dreads behind her and snorted when Jade leaned away.

"Thanks! Alright, everyone! We start in twenty minutes and I'll go project the new brackets up on the screen right now!"

"Sweeeeeeet." White Diamond sang, swinging her dreads around to lightly whip Jade in the face with them again.

"Next time we get high together, I'm trimming your dreads," Jade laughed, playfully shoving White Diamond with a single hand. The taller woman stumbled and shouted with surprise. Jade gasped and lunged forward so swiftly that she didn't remember telling herself to do it and caught White Diamond by her wrists. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Haha, it's fine! I kind of deserved it." Diamond laughed as she found her footing. She quickly swung her dreads in Jade's face again. "Bitch."

 **000000**

Naraku cleared a space from his smaller desk in his office on campus. Part of him wanted to take the experiment home, but something in him insisted on keeping it away from home. He used plexiglass and tape to construct a case to keep the leaves and heart tissue in a clean, unexposed environment. He already injected the leaves with blood and coated them in tissue solution.

 _'And now,'_ Naraku grabbed the IV tube that led to half of the leaves, injecting a small amount of the glowing mixture into it. He left the other half of the leaves alone as a control. _'This could give me some idea of what is possibly going on inside of Jade's body.'_

He sat down and turned the lamp off. The translucent leaves he injected with the mixture now had glowing veins of pink. It didn't take long for it to spread and he had to assume that crystals were forming. Naraku glanced at his phone. _'I suppose I can leave now.'_

When he walked into his apartment, his stomach began searing with pangs of hunger. That was when Naraku realized that he didn't remember the last time he ate. He remembered nibbling on a carrot or slice of apple when feeding the guinea pig, but he didn't remember eating a meal.

 _'The dishes are still in the cabinet, so I actually haven't eaten.'_ he concluded after entering the kitchen with a heavy sigh. _'I don't think I have anything to eat here.'_ Pulling his phone out, he scrolled to Jade's work number, but then he recalled that she wasn't in town. She was at a tournament. _'I don't want to grocery shop. I'm too tired.'_

After giving in and ordering a pizza anyway, Naraku folded a towel and placed it on the couch. He sat the gray guinea pig on the towel and awarded him with a leaf of romaine lettuce and a few slices of cucumber. Naraku placed the cardboard litter box on the other side so the pig wouldn't be tempted to bite him.

"Would you be interested in watching Jade play?" Naraku asked the guinea pig while arching an eyebrow. The rodent tore off a strip of lettuce and began eating it like a woodchipper. His wide, round eyes bore into Naraku's and for a brief moment, Naraku wondered if that was a stare of judgment. "You like her. That's why I asked." he insisted. The pig continued to munch and stare at him expectantly. "That does imply that I care more about what you think than what I think, doesn't it?" The pig chewed slower and continued to stare...and munch...and stare...and munch...and stare with those wide, vacant eyes that saw everything Naraku did in his apartment under the pretense of privacy. He was a witness to Naraku's obsessive cleaning, his core workouts, his occasional pranks against his neighbors, his habit of talking to himself when planning something, his work on the mysterious crystals-turned-liquid, and the rarest of all; Naraku's caring side. "Fine. I like her. She's nice. Now stop staring at me like that." The guinea pig picked up a slice of cucumber, and continued to watch Naraku. It felt less judgmental somehow.

 _'It's said that the line between greatness and madness is blurred; did I just cross it?'_ Naraku wondered to himself. Instead of answering, he turned on his TV, searched Jade's page for the livestream of the tournament on his phone, cast the stream to his TV, and crossed his arms to begin forgetting what just happened.

"We're back and continuing on with the finals in Losers brackets! It's going to be Rez, a Gargos and Mira player and two-time champion, going up against White Diamond, a faithful Maya player and a two-time champion also!" a big, chubby man with a brown, grizzly beard announced as he adjusted his headset. The name, "Big Rich," appeared on the screen under him and then the smaller, wiry man beside him was dubbed, "Seethe."

"Man, I have to say, if you're skeptical about video games not requiring skills, watch this match. Two high-leveled players, two champions, are going to have some of the most incredible playstyles." Seethe explained passionately, pushing his black hair behind his ears.

"Yeah, and I've seen these two play against each other before," Big Rich chuckled. "There is no love lost between them, but I would be lying if I didn't say that it didn't add to their matches against each other."

"Oh definitely. Seeing two friends go against each other is fun, but two people who openly hate each other? Epic."

"Aaaaaaand the countdown to the match begins. Both players are getting some last second tips from their chosen coaches," The screen minimized and showed the announcers' table and then another screen appeared to show the competitors. One competitor was a young woman with dark brown skin and white dreadlocks. Squatting down next to her was a short white man wearing the same shirt. Naraku assumed they were teammates. The other player was a young, blond man with a smile so smug that even Naraku felt like he needed to tone it down a bit. He listened to his coach for a few seconds before shooing him away and pulling his headset on.

"Alright! Ten seconds! Whoever wins this goes on to Grand Finals to face off against WeedWolf for the title and prize money!" Big Rich announced excitedly. Naraku perked up immediately. Jade was in Grand Finals? He knew she was good, but so good that she could possibly win a tournament?

"Dude, she has been on fire this weekend. We were all worried that she wouldn't rebound from her health issues, but it seems like all that did was hook her into the Matrix."

"Right? Her breaks and counters have been so clutch."

"They're scary is what they are. I'd be so scared to press any buttons against her right now."

"Maybe the taunt button,"

"She'll counter that, too."

While the match between the two played, Naraku paid some attention, but he was more interested in Jade and how she got so far in the tournament. He glanced at the live chat every now and then, watching people give their opinions on players, matches, and characters, and every time someone mentioned Jade, Naraku felt an odd sense of pride. They all called her WeedWolf; she was the relaxed, cool one of the, "main four," and her sense of humor knew no boundaries. Naraku already knew that about her and so much more. He knew her by her real name. Whenever anyone praised her for her love of weed, it actually bothered him. Yes, she smoked weed, but did any of them know that she had a knack for stoichiometry? Did they know that she loved water bears? The more he read, the less he liked. They loved her for who they thought she was; a parodied version of Jade - they loved WeedWolf.

A knock on the door pulled his attention away and he answered it, being met with the silver-haired reluctant one of Jade's bunch; Ginta. The shorter man waved awkwardly and pulled the pizza box from the delivery bag.

"What did the jealous one with the tiny penis do to my pizza?" Naraku asked lazily, counting out the cash from his wallet.

"Nothing! I made it! I didn't do anything! Jade would nuke my computer if I started anything with you!" Ginta insisted urgently. Naraku stared him down for a moment, but then nodded curtly and handed him the cash. Ginta pointed behind Naraku. "Watching Jade play?"

"I am. I'm curious how she got so far."

"Well, fifteen thousand dollars is a hell of a motivator for Jade,"

Naraku locked gazes with Ginta and then smirked. "That sounds like her."

"Yeah," the delivery man laughed nervously, handing Naraku the box and quickly counting the cash. When he found the spare two dollars, he held them up cautiously. "Uh, sir,"

"Keep them." Naraku said.

"You're infamous for not tipping."

"I'm infamous for not tipping Jade. If she found out that I stiffed you, she would stain my entire face purple."

"Ahaha, thanks," Ginta laughed as he walked away.

By the time Naraku fixed his tea and sat down with it and his pizza, the set between Rez and White Diamond had ended. It was best three out of five matches and both won two, but White Diamond made an unsafe move, and Rez punished for the win on the fifth game. The crowd was excited, but they also cheered the woman more than they did the man. That was when Naraku got his first glimpse of Jade. She greeted White Diamond with a fist bump while wearing a green and purple cap with gray wolf ears on top as she entered the boxing-style ring. She ignored Rez, who was waiting for his fist bump, which made Naraku chuckle.

"I don't think she likes him." he said aloud, glancing at the guinea pig. The pig was now relaxed on the towel, stretched out and looking content.

The crowd roared when WeedWolf's name was announced and when Rez's name was announced, there were cheers and claps, but the difference was painfully obvious. However, Rez was smiling and waving as if he received the raucous howls. Jade gave a few short waves and thanked everyone.

 _'She's focused. She is aiming to win this.'_ Naraku noticed. He didn't always know her motivations - she confused him more often than not - but he could see she was visualizing every set-up in her mind as she sat down and stared at nothing. She cracked her knuckles and then turned and pointed to someone. A large man ran up and then knelt beside her, listening to her comments. He nodded and began moving his hands, explaining something complex.

"Alright, alright, alright," Big Rich cheered as the screen split to show the announcers and players. "Grand Finals! WeedWolf versus Rez!"

"Well, even though Rez has to win three out of five just to reset the brackets, he's still a bit more experienced than her," Seethe pointed out.

"Noooooo, Weed has been in KI since day one. She has mastered every version of Sabrewulf they've given her; good and bad."

"Yeah, but Gargos is brutal against Wulf."

"We'll see what she'll do about that. Mira is bad news for Wulf and Jade crushed Boss' Mira."

"True, true."

The match began and Jade held back, forcing Rez to approach her. Naraku watched as the gargoyle flew overhead only for the werewolf to dive underneath, out of his reach, and turn to hit him from behind. The announcers lost their minds and so did the audience.

"Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo! If you don't know what just happened, holy shit, dude! Gargos has an overhead that can't be blocked, so Wulf just dove forward and clipped him from behind and now WeedWolf has some meter to work with!" Big Rich was fanning himself with his papers.

 _'Yes, but the gargoyle's wingspan allows him to hit her from almost full-screen distance.'_ Naraku sighed. Gargos began punching through portals, which opened around Sabrewulf, who had to block the flurry of fists from all directions. _'Or he can punch at full-screen with portals, I guess. That seems cheap.'_ Jade's blocks were solid, but Rez finally had meter to summon a minion; a chubby mole-looking creature. Now Jade had to block portal punches, wing sweeps, and a creature swinging and jumping at her.

"Aw, right when she hit the minion, Rez confirmed a portal punch combo," Seethe sighed.

"Fuck the portal punches; summoning one minion-" Naraku cut himself off when Rez summoned a second minion wielding a pitchfork. Jade now had three enemies to pay attention to. "Very cheap." Naraku reached over to pet his companion and the pig squeaked happily for the attention.

Jade lost the three matches Rez needed to reset the bracket, though Jade didn't lose by much. The camera was focused on both players; Rez laughing and joking while Jade sat quietly, staring at her screen. If she was upset, she was hiding it well. Naraku didn't see any hint of it. Her eyes would usually give away her frustrations, but they revealed nothing of the sort. The crowd was restless, the announcers were discussing strategies, but Jade was acting as if she was alone in the room.

"Rez is calling himself the champ."

Naraku watched as a smirk appeared on Jade's face, but she kept her eyes on the screen. They were told to start and Jade nodded, going back to the character selection screen.

"Her best bet is to disrupt his momentum, so she's going to take another moment to think things through." Seethe said.

 _'No, she's waiting.'_ Naraku could see it on her face. She lightly tapped her palms together as the selection countdown ticked away. With two seconds left, she quickly moved her stick from Sabrewulf to Spinal, confirming her pick and then picking Spinal's stage to fight on.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuh, does Weed play Spinal?" Seethe asked uncertainly.

"I've never seen her touch Spinal." Big Rich answered with disbelief in his tone. Even the audience had gone quiet, some murmuring to others, many shaking their heads, and finally Rez, who looked confused and worried beyond help.

 _'He's done. Jade is in his head.'_ Naraku chuckled, finishing his tea and preparing for a glorious beatdown.

An eerie green light pulled the skeleton's bones from the ground. They connected to each other and the skeleton roared, ready to throw down with the gargoyle. The announcer screamed fight. Immediately, the skeleton charged forward with reckless abandon, cackling maniacally, which made Naraku start laughing with it. The gargoyle used his wing to sweep the skeleton away, but the skeleton teleported behind him with its eerie green light and began swinging his sword. The audience began to cheer and when Jade caught him with a counter breaker, everyone's cheers turned to screams of raw, primal excitement.

"She's got meter! She's got skulls!" Seethe called out. In the midst of a combo, the skeleton shot an orange projectile skull from his shield, cursing the gargoyle. "He won't gain instinct meter from any of this!"

"She nailed him with two purple skulls! No shadow meter, either! Gargos needs his meter to fully operate!"

"Oh!" Seethe gasped when Spinal grabbed Gargos and flung him back into the corner violently. "Spinal lives in the corner, man! You generally don't want to be backed into the corner, but Spinal is worst case scenario!"

The commentator wasn't joking. Naraku almost pitied Rez...almost. Jade was merciless. Ghostly skeletal fists were summoned to punch, grab, and fling Gargos back into the corner. Spinal swung his sword like a windmill, blasted Gargos with projectiles, and ended the combo by teleporting back and forth, striking him harshly each time.

"He tried so hard to get out of that corner, but she was all over his shit that match!" Seethe said loudly.

"She grabbed him and said, "Git yo ass back in the corner, boy!"" Big Rich added boisterously.

Jade and Rez jumped right into their second match. Rez almost seemed to have the upper hand, but every time he flew away, Spinal teleported to meet him. Rez finally put full-screen distance between himself and Jade and began his portal punches. Spinal blocked, blocked, and on the third, he used a new move that Naraku hadn't seen before. The skeleton held his shield out and began absorbing the punches, granting Jade projectile ammunition and cancelling all damage.

"SUCK! SUCK! SUCK!" the audience began chanting. "SUCK! SUCK! SUCK!"

"So loud!" Seethe screamed.

The second match ended. The skeleton was victorious once more, cackling wildly to taunt his opponent. Rez backed out to the character selection screen and chose the vampire, Mira. He then began talking to Jade, pointing at the screen. Naraku could make out the words, "Come on," and, "I'm serious."

 _'I remember Jade having a hard time against this character.'_ Naraku looked down when he felt the guinea pig leap into his lap. The pig spun around a few times and when he found the spot he wanted, he settled down and nuzzled Naraku's thigh. Naraku scratched his darker ear lightly.

"Sounds like Rez is telling her to use Wulf," Seethe said.

"Fuckin'...I would too after that," Big Rich laughed. "Though, she might want to consider it. Spinal has a hard time with Mira. So does Wulf, but Wulf has the speed and precision needed to keep Mira honest if you're a true master."

"She can end it and win it all in this next match."

"Oh! She did it! She went with Wulf! Werewolf versus vampire!"

 _'She didn't like that.'_ Naraku snorted. Rez must have said something insulting because Jade went from calm and relaxed to calm and murderous. She gave Rez one last cold stare before turning back to her screen. Chills of excitement washed over Naraku. What did a vengeful Jade look like in the video game world?

Jade was on the defensive, but she clipped the vampire with an overhead slash. When the vampire stood up, the werewolf bit her ankle and tossed her into the corner. The werewolf opened his stance right when the vampire kicked, catching her in another painful combo and depleting her first life bar.

"Oof! Rez caught by another jab and Weed's going in for the jugular! She wants to end this quickly! She's hungry!" Big Rich shouted.

The first counter-breaker in the combo stirred the audience more. There was nothing Rez could do except wait for another break opportunity or hope that Jade was going to end the combo. The second counter-breaker elicited some screams and people began jumping up and down.

"Man, this isn't going to kill, but it's going to- A THIRD COUNTER-BREAKER! IT'S OVER! WEEDWOLF'S OUR REGIONAL CHAMPION!" Big Rich bellowed as he stood up from his chair.

"A one-hundred percent combo!"

"She isn't stopping! She isn't stopping! She went into her ultra!"

Naraku began chuckling with pleasure. He saw Jade chanting, "I'm not done," over and over, and due to tournament rules, Rez had to sit and wait until his opponent finished her combo. He looked irrevocably disgusted and Naraku loved it.

"Her second ultra! Second! Look at the hits! She's hit him over two-hundred times! This combo is still going!" Seethe was now standing and nearly dancing in place.

"THREE ULTRAS! AAAAAAHHHH!" was the last Naraku heard before the stream's sound was cut off completely. He didn't need to hear it, though. The two commentators were hugging and jumping in place as Jade finished her combo with a backflip kick. The vampire's body finally hit the ground. Jade's combo hit count ended at three-hundred twenty-three. She juggled and hit Rez for almost two minutes straight. A few players ripped their shirts off and were swinging them around helicopter-style. The amount of alpha male testosterone pouring from Naraku's TV was ridiculous.

It took ten minutes for the tournament organizers to fix the sound and regain control of their audience. Jade was now standing on a stage set up next to the fighting ring. She was smiling and holding a glass trophy in her hands. She was asked a few boring questions about how she felt and what she was going to do next. While they were awarding her the giant check of fifteen thousand dollars, other tournament players were giving their opinions of the matches.

"Uh, yeah, nine-one-one? We just witnessed a fuckin' murderrrrrrrrrr!" a tall, dark-skinned player shouted, throwing his fist in the air as his friends cheered with him. "WeedWolf's cool and her Spinal is sick! She earned her win!"

Naraku turned the stream off. He had seen all he cared to see. The guinea pig in his lap was still asleep, so he decided not to wake him.

 **000000**

"Hi Mama," Jade sat on her bed and crossed her legs. "I'm sorry for calling so late."

"Oh, you know you can call me whenever. Plus, it's probably important, isn't it?" her grandmother replied mildly.

"Mhm. I just got home from a tournament. I won."

"You did? Which game?"

"Killer Instinct; it's the one with the werewolf."

"I like that one."

"I won fifteen thousand dollars, Mama."

"...What? Fifteen?"

"Thousand. Fifteen thousand."

"That's amazing! You will have to tell Rosa yourself so that she knows all that practice pays off. I'm so proud of you."

"It's going to pay off my medical bills and a chunk of my student loans,"

"Use it for fun, too."

"I'll probably bank the rest of it, if I have anything left, that is."

"If that's what you want, then do it." Mama said. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yup. It's almost like it never happened."

"I'm relieved to hear it. And school?"

"I have an A in my art class and a B+ in O-Chem. The other classes are just credit hours with no grades."

"Good, good."

"What about you?"

"Oh, nothing goes on in this old lady's life. Just helping Rosa with the cooking and cleaning, and trying to keep Rosa from disowning Lucy."

"Disowning her?" Jade asked with a frown.

"Rosa says things, but she doesn't mean them. I told her to quit using those kinds of words, but she thinks I don't know anything." Mama replied with a tinge of bitterness.

"I mean, you raised her,"

"Yeah, but then she throws your mother in my face, so I just try to be there for Lucy and Lily when she gets in those moods."

"What is Lucy doing? I know she was slacking off in school, but she graduated."

"She did and her GPA was just fine. Rosa wants her to go to college and Lucy wants to find a job and do her thing for a few years, which I support. College is hard and if Lucy isn't motivated, it will be a waste."

"Yeah, I kind of wish I did that sometimes."

"Well, how about this, and if you can't, it's okay, but what if Lucy came to stay with you during your Thanksgiving break? We can tell Rosa it's to show her what it's like in college, but really, I think they need to get away from each other for a bit."

"Uh, I don't have a problem with it, but I'll have to ask my roommates. They're nice, though, so they'll probably say yes."

"Alright. Just let me know. You will come home for winter break, right?"

"Oh yeah. Probably not right away, but I plan on coming home for a couple of weeks."

"Good." Mama sighed. "Have you met anyone?"

"In general or to date?"

"Date. I know you meet people all the time."

"Not really, no." Jade replied, plucking fuzz off her gray pajama pants.

"Your aunt came home talking something fierce about a man you're involved with, but she didn't really explain too much." Mama said with a chuckle. "She didn't remember how you're involved with him, but she still had the presence of mind to remember that he was very handsome."

"Oh God," Jade groaned, softly rubbing her face. "It's Naraku. He's a grad student of the lab I work in. I help him with his thesis stuff and annoy him in between. He returns the favor. Yes, he's hot, but he's the biggest asshole I've ever met."

"Just friends?"

"Oh yeah, I'm not sleeping with him. I don't think he knows how sex works, honestly. I'll have to ask him."

"Keep him away from your Aunt Cougar then."

"Damn, Mama!" Jade laughed.

"She knows what she is." Mama retorted slyly. "Well, I'll let you go, but I'm so proud of you, Jade."

"Thanks, Mama. I love you."

"I love you, too."

Jade plugged the charger into her phone and sat down at her desk. She opened her budget and bills notebook and began adding up the totals of her medical bills, loans, and regular household bills. The pit in her stomach deepened as the total rose with each input on her calculator, but she knew her prize money would wipe most of it out, if not all of it. She hated seeing the ridiculous totals regardless.

 _'Two thousand goes to The Pack...if that stupid meltdown hadn't happened, I would have so much leftover.'_ Jade thought bitterly. Then she paused and looked away from her notebook. What if the coma had rewired her brain and that was why her hand-eye coordination was godlike? She still had no answer for why she was healing faster, but maybe the coma had something to do with that, too.

"Hm?" Jade jumped slightly when she heard her phone's notification tone. She thought she placed it on silent.

 _ **'I meant to send this earlier, but I was distracted. Congratulations on your victory. You were savage.'**_ It was a text from Naraku.

 ** _'Thanks, dude.'_** she replied. Then, she smiled; even Naraku was impressed.

 **000000**

Naraku's mind was reaching for words, any words, to explain what he was looking at, but every time he found an appropriate description, it seemed to dissolve from his memory. Did he actually wake up? He had to be dreaming! Had to be!

 _'This isn't real! None of this is real! I'm still asleep!'_ Naraku closed his eyes. _'I'm still extracting in the lab with Jade. I never dosed her. I'm just sleep deprived and having a twisted, specific nightmare.'_ He opened his eyes and saw the pink glow emitting from the case of his heart tissue leaves. _'It's real.'_ It was when he banished all thoughts from his mind that he heard distinct pulsating beats coming from the case. The sound was slow and continuous; there was a slight moist sound to it, as if liquid was being pushed and pulled.

He stepped closer to the case after what seemed like hours of staring at it and leaned down to look directly into it. At first glance, it was a blob of pink. The spinach leaves, both with and without the solution, had been consumed entirely by the crystals. He could see branch-like tendrils within the mass of crystals and deep in the center was a darker purple mass of crystals that appeared to be expanding and compressing slightly.

"It's...a heart." he realized. The sound was unmistakable; it was a live, beating heart! The tendrils were veins! "But why? How?" All he saw the crystals do was consume and expand using blood! Why was the mass of crystals beating? Suddenly, he remembered the microscopic heart tissue. There was no guarantee that the tissue would accept the spinach leaves as a structure, yet here was a single, live organ.

 _'Did the crystals consume the heart tissue and then...replicate it?'_

"No," he answered himself, now massaging both sides of his head. "No, no, no! Because that would imply the crystals are alive...like a virus." It made more sense than it being an unidentified mineral. Jade showed flu-like symptoms before snapping; she was feverish, her stomach seemed to bother her, and her energy was depleted. He didn't experience the same symptoms when trying the solution made with Jade's blood, though, nor did he with the experimental cut on his arm, which was now healed.

 _'It acts like a virus, though. It spreads through blood, hijacks the cells, and creates more of itself. It could have healed Jade's muscle tears by replicating the muscles it was attached to, same with my cut, and now, it has replicated a heart using the heart tissue. It sounds insane, but that's what it appears to be doing. I have no other explanation.'_ Naraku closed his eyes. He still hadn't heard anything from his sponsors, but maybe he didn't need them anymore. More experiments needed to be conducted before Naraku could present any of this to anyone of professional stature, but if he was right, then he might have found the answer to cardiovascular diseases, physical injuries across the spectrum, and organ transplants. _'If the side-effects can be minimized, it would be an immeasurable breakthrough in the medical and chemical world! I wouldn't need a thesis, a sponsor, a Master's degree; I would be the pinnacle of scientific discovery of the twenty-first century. No one could touch or question me.'_

"I have work to do." he declared, flipping open his notebook to begin recording his latest creation.


	24. Blood Echoes

**Blood Echoes**

 _ **'It's beating stronger today.'**_ Naraku wrote down in his notebook after timing and counting the beats. _**'It hasn't changed in size or appearance.'**_ He let out a quiet breath. Some days it would beat weakly and Naraku would wonder if that was the end and other days it was strong and healthy. It didn't seem to do anything other than exist.

 _'I wonder if this is how it all started. This substance was formed in a specific environment and it found its way into a living creature. From there, it spread through the food chain, replicating whatever it touched.'_ he wrote that thought down, too. His phone vibrated and he unlocked it quickly.

 ** _'I know they reinstated you and your funding, but they didn't tell me why. They did tell me that I was to send a bi-weekly report of your findings. Since this is your project, I'll let you tell me whatever it is you want them to know and that can be their stupid report. So, send me some bullshit to send to them by Friday.'_ ** Bruce's email read.

 ** _'They claimed that a new lead scientist was the one who pulled the plug, but they replaced him with someone nicer who decided to allow me to continue since my project will help them. I believe that as much as I believe in unicorns. I do need to ask you some hypothetical questions.'_** Naraku replied. The email his sponsors sent him was insultingly short and sweet. He assumed his claim about melting the shard they sent him was what convinced them to reinstate him, but they never asked him how he did it and as long as he was being funded, he would tell them whatever they wanted to hear...except how to melt it. If he could do this much with a shard, he could only imagine what they would do with a larger piece.

 ** _'Bring your hypothetical questions to the lab. I have time.'_**

 **000000**

"This is so exciting! Your aunt was really nice and funny, so I can't imagine what your cousin is like!" Kagome exclaimed. She leaned forward from the back seat of Jade's car. "Not that you're not cool, Jade. That sounded bad."

"Ah, it's fine. Lucy is...tough to impress." Jade explained.

"Soooooo, she's like you?" Sango asked slyly.

"I guess? She makes an effort to not be impressed, though. I let things happen as they will."

"Oh."

"She's into the dark clothes, make-up, and constant frowning stuff." Jade continued with a laugh. "She's really good at drawing, though. I'm tempted to ask her to draw my last project for me."

"Uh, no, you're going to suffer with me." Sango argued lightly.

"She can help us both. She'll probably want weed first, though."

"Do you just give off pheromones that attract other stoners?" Sango quipped with a laugh. "I mean, Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku, Naraku, and now your cousin,"

"Both of them." Jade corrected.

"You're making my argument stronger,"

"Hey, I haven't smoked since before the coma and I shared my cannabis chocolate."

"Is that why the last stoner you attracted is Naraku? Your pheromones have weakened?"

"Yes." Jade answered with a cheeky smile. Sango tried not to smile back, but it ended up making her laugh instead. "To be fair, my grandma passed the joint first, so this isn't entirely my fault."

"What?" Kagome leaned forward again. "Your grandmother taught you how to smoke?"

"Well, yeah. She said that if I was going to do it, I should learn how to do it the right way. She taught me how to roll, how to use hookah, bubblers, and then I taught Lucy and Lily."

"How does Rosa feel about that?"

"Of all things, weed is not one of her bigger concerns. She would prefer us not to, but she knows it makes us stay home more often than not, so she doesn't have to worry. As long as we don't do it in front of or with her patrons or while driving, she lets it go."

"That's fair, I guess." Kagome said. "I've never smoked and never wanted to, but you make it seem like a ton of fun."

"It's situational. When I'm with others, it's fun. Everyone says stupid shit and laughs. But when I'm by myself, it's relaxing."

"I see."

Jade pulled up to the airport baggage claim doors and looked around, searching for someone wearing black so dark that it drank in the light around it. She already sent her cousin a text, but didn't receive a response yet. Her eyes found a petite form wearing black from her head down and she smiled, stepping out of her car. Jade cupped her hands around her mouth and inhaled deeply.

"PUUUUUUUUUUUTAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Jade sang tauntingly. Immediately, the young woman in black turned to her and flipped her off strongly with one hand while the other held her phone up to her ear. She strode over to Jade's car and rolled her eyes dramatically while mouthing the word, "Mom."

"Yeah, she's right here! Talk to her!" Lucy shouted, shoving her phone in Jade's face. "Talk to her."

"Hey Auntie, it's me." Jade said while opening her trunk for her cousin.

"Oh good! You're sure this isn't a problem?" Rosa asked.

"It's kind of too late to turn back now, but it's not a problem."

"Alright. I love you both."

"Love you, too." Jade ended the call and sat in the driver's seat, handing back her cousin's phone. Sango apparently had moved to the back seat with Kagome to allow Lucy to have the coveted passenger seat. "She said she loves you."

"Yeah, she loves me so much that she wants to disown me. Fuck off." Lucy replied with mild bitterness.

"I'm sorry." Jade sighed. "Oh, that's Kagome and that's Sango; they're my roommates. Sango, Kagome, this is Lucy."

"Hey." Lucy murmured, holding her hand up briefly to wave.

The drive back to the apartment was quiet, which unnerved Jade. Lucy was small, but she packed a detrimental punch when ticked off. She couldn't quite blame her cousin for her mood, though. Aunt Rosa meant well, but her passion often got the best of her and she would wind up saying something hurtful when angered.

"You can stay in my room." Jade said, leading her cousin down the hallway to her room. "I hope it isn't too bright for you."

"Eat me, Jade." Lucy snipped playfully. She placed her bags on Jade's bed and turned around, shrugging dramatically. "Done."

"Cool. Are you hungry or anything?"

"Not yet. I'm just- is that a cat?" her cousin asked, pointing at the tan blur that flew from under Jade's bed to behind the door.

"Yeah, she's Sango's. Her name is Kirara."

"Aw, hi kitty," Lucy cooed as she made kissing noises. Kirara hesitated, but she decided to greet the dark guest anyway. The cat purred as Lucy's fingers combed through her fur. "She's the nicest cat I've ever met." Jade walked back into the living room, trying to think of something to do.

"Hey Jade, quick question," Kagome announced, raising her hand. She was seated on the longer couch with her chemistry homework in her lap.

"I have one for you; what are you doing? We're on break." Jade retorted.

"If I finish it now, I won't have to worry about it."

"Fair. Okay, what's your question?"

"So, I solved for both volumes, but I'm still missing a temperature. Is this a mistake?"

"No, Naraku's a dick. Use Charles' Law."

"This is the third equation I've had to use for this one problem!" Kagome groaned as she threw her head back with annoyance. "Is this what the final is going to be like?"

"Probably worse."

"Can you possibly...persuade him to be a bit nicer?"

"That would make it worse."

"Who're you talking about?" Lucy interjected, plopping down on the other end of the couch from Kagome with Kirara cradled in her arms.

"The guy I work with in the lab." Jade sighed.

"Oh." Lucy let the subject go as she was far more interested in Kirara. Jade sat on the arm of the smaller couch and fell backwards, yawning deeply.

"Alright, girls," Sango announced, walking into the living room. She was wearing her scrubs and fumbling with her purse. "I shall return later."

"Should we rent some movies or something?" Kagome asked curiously.

"Whatever you guys want." Jade said.

"I don't care." Lucy added.

"Oh boy. Don't get too excited there." Kagome's sarcasm made Sango snicker.

"I just finished a bunch of lab work for Sesshomaru and Naraku and I worked a double shift. I'm tired." Jade complained evenly with her eyes closed.

"I just got off a plane." Lucy stated in a similar tone. It was Jade's turn to flip her off and it actually made her dark cousin snort.

"Maybe today should just be a nap day, then?" Sango suggested, bidding everyone goodbye.

"Yeah, Luce, the sun is still up." Jade snipped dryly.

"Just because I look like a vampire, it doesn't mean I am one."

"Sounds like your last feeding was high in sodium."

"Ha, it sounds like someone else was exposed to a lot of sodium, too. Did your lab boyfriend shower you with it?" Lucy shot back with a grin.

"Maybe." Jade said flatly.

"Uh," Kagome paused, unsure of what to say. Suddenly, the cousins began laughing softly and pointing at one another tauntingly.

"I miss having you around, Jade." Lucy finally said with a heavy exhale. "Mom has been more high-strung than ever and after your whole coma thing, she got worse. I swear she's losing it."

"I just nodded and said okay. It's hard to get angry when someone validates you."

"I don't negotiate with terrorists."

"I didn't negotiate; I negated." Jade said, holding up a finger.

"Hm. I guess I can give it a shot. I feel like she wasn't that hard on you. Like, you're going to school, you have a job, you have an online following, and she wants me to follow you and be like you."

"Fair enough." Jade said. "I don't know why she's doing that."

"Come on, Jade. You know why." her cousin insisted impatiently.

"I don't think that's why."

"It's exactly why. You know how she gets when your mom gets brought up. First she's sad because her sister left, then she's mad because her sister left a baby, then she's jealous that her drug-addict sister's kid is more successful than her kids,"

"Luce,"

"You know what she did after your whole coma thing?" Lucy interrupted, raising her voice slightly.

"Uh," Jade wracked her brain. "Took you guys to a doctor? I don't know."

"Well, that, and she contacted a private investigator to find your mom." Lucy said bluntly.

"Cool." Jade finally sat up and looked at her cousin tiredly. "When was anyone going to tell me?"

"She kept it from us. We only just found out a few days ago through some papers she left on the table. Mama told me to tell you face-to-face."

"Okay."

"You're not mad?"

"Why would I be? I don't know her. I wish Auntie wouldn't do those things, though."

"I told you, she's unstable. Lots of baggage."

"I guess I should call her and ask her what's up with that." Jade scratched her head. "I mean, you seem pretty convinced that this has made her worse, so maybe if I talk to her about it, she'll calm down."

"I doubt it, but it's worth a try." Lucy shrugged.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to sit through all of that." Kagome finally said in a small voice. Jade looked over at her and saw her wide eyes and the uncomfortable wringing of her hands.

"It's fine. Nothing serious." Jade told her. "Auntie gets really stressed around the holidays. She means well, but she doesn't handle things like she should."

"Has she tried to find your mom before?" Kagome asked.

"Once that I know of. I was about ten. It led to a dead end."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry to both of you. I kind of...my dad died and my mom and grandpa raised my brother and me. My mom got stressed out a lot. Having a hole in the family is never easy." Kagome said as she looked down at her lap.

"Yeah, it sucks." Lucy agreed.

"Well said." Jade laughed. Kagome smiled with them, but she couldn't help but hear a hollowness in Jade's laughter.

 **000000**

"I inject peroxide in the bottles to dissolve the biological material and then when they stop bubbling, I suck out the peroxide and then inject distilled water to make its as clean as possible." Jade explained, pointing to each chemical and tool.

"Why?" Lucy quizzed with her arms crossed.

"It's easier to see whatever they're looking for under the microscope."

"So you don't use the microscope?"

"I have a few times. I found water bears once."

"What are those?"

"Ah!" Jade gasped, suddenly beaming with excitement. "Water bears are the best! Let's go find some!"

"Okay?"

After grabbing a petri dish and a plastic knife, Jade led Lucy outside to search for a nearby water source. She remembered the library being the closest one, so she walked in that direction. Lucy followed her with less gusto, texting on her phone.

"This is where I found some last time," Jade grunted as she knelt down.

"Oh hey, look at what Mama sent me," Lucy said, holding her phone out to Jade. Jade took it and stared for a moment, unsure of what she was looking at. "It's Nate's sheep. They got into the dogs' pen."

"How do they keep doing that?" Jade asked, now seeing the black specks as eyes. Their coats helped them blend in with the snow and hay.

"We still haven't figured that out."

"I'll set up a camera when I come home for winter break and see if I can catch them doing it."

"Cool." Lucy took her phone back from Jade and placed it in her pocket. Jade leaned over, looking for something to scrape. She spotted a small patch of moss near the edge of the water and dipped the dish and knife in.

"Ah!" her eyes saw the gray rock right as it landed in the water, splashing a small wave of nearly-freezing water up on Jade's face and chest as she gasped with surprise. His wicked laughter filled the air and before Jade could say anything, Lucy plucked a rock from the ground, stood, and launched it. Naraku barely dodged it, leaning away as it flew past his head. He blinked and looked back at Lucy with an arched eyebrow. She was armed with another rock and threw it with impressive speed, but Naraku was ready this time and caught it with his right hand.

"You're a feisty one." Naraku stated, sauntering towards the two young women. Jade was standing now, wiping the water from her face with her sleeve. "You have quite the arm."

"You're about to find out just how good it is, fucker!" Lucy growled, pulling a butterfly knife from her black coat pocket. She flipped it nimbly in her fingers, separating the handles and exposing the blade. Naraku stopped his approach, but his smirk was now a wide grin.

"Aaah! Lucy, what the fuck?" Jade hissed, grabbing her cousin's arm and pulling it down as she glanced around worriedly. "You can't have those on campus!"

"I'll just stick it in his balls and say it was his." Lucy retorted, pointing the blade at the tall man again.

"You didn't tell me you had a sister, Jade." Naraku pointed out before crossing his arms. He kept the rock in his hand, though.

"Technically cousin, but she's like my sister,"

"I'm about to be your worst fucking nightmare, asshole." Lucy bit impatiently.

"Stop!" Jade insisted, grabbing her cousin's arm again.

"Heh, I like her." Naraku chuckled. He began walking forward and Lucy gave Jade an annoyed expression before cursing under her breath, flicking the knife's double handles around to conceal the blade before stuffing it back into her pocket. Naraku made note of the fact that her hand also remained in her pocket. "What are you doing, Jade?"

"Looking for water bears." Jade said with a slight grimace.

"Ah." Naraku tossed away the rock he was holding. "Well, do be careful around the water. Hypothermia is no fun."

"I'm getting your name and address and I'll be seeing you again with my homies." Lucy said bitterly.

"Homies?" Naraku arched an eyebrow again.

"He's cool, Luce. And trust me, your homies can't fight if he sprays them with acid." Jade joked, but they must have had some mental connection, because her cousin seemed to take it seriously. She didn't back down, however. When Jade knelt down to scrape more moss, Lucy stood guard with both hands in her pockets, staring Naraku down soullessly without even blinking.

 _'I remember Bruce mentioning her aunt being aggressive, but it appears her cousin has learned well.'_ Naraku thought, staring back at Lucy and trying his hardest not to smile or snicker. He saw no relation between the two women whatsoever. Where Jade was taller with a straighter body type, Lucy was shorter, bustier, and curvier. Her skin was brown where Jade's was a much lighter olive tone. Her hair was black, cut to a short bob with a blue streak hanging around her face. She had two lip rings, a nose ring, and seven piercings in both ears. Her brown eyes had nothing on Jade's green ones, though.

"Alright, done." Jade announced as she began walking back to the science building. She stopped when she noticed the other two hadn't followed. "Really, guys?"

"I'm not letting him walk behind me!" her cousin snapped.

"You're the one carrying a knife, so why should I allow you to walk behind me?" Naraku said plainly. He was clearly enjoying the situation.

"Jade, tell him that his mom is a two-bit whore who had a worthless son!"

"Hahaha, you're adorable." Naraku cooed tauntingly.

"You, in front of me," Jade said to Naraku. "She'll be behind me. Since we're all seven years old now, we can be a choo-choo train of happy murder!"

"I'll run a train all over his business."

"Don't threaten me with a good time."

Jade tried her hardest to ignore the tension between her cousin and her mentor by focusing on finding her beloved water bears under the lab's high-powered microscope. Naraku was taking care of his thesis samples, holding every individual vial up at eye level to inspect them and check for reaction bubbles. Lucy sat on the other side of Jade, her arms crossed and her irritated stare keeping a close watch on Naraku.

"Oh, aw, false alarm," Jade sighed.

"How do you work with this guy?" Lucy asked her in Spanish, keeping her voice low.

"I don't give him the reactions he wants." Jade replied in Spanish.

"He's annoying."

"Yeah,"

"He's disrespectful."

"Yeah,"

"Awww," Lucy groaned with disgust. "You like him?"

"He has his moments. Before I fell into a coma, I went crazy. I was attacking people."

"What?" Lucy's expression and tone changed entirely.

"Yeah. I even totaled his car. Right as I was about to jump off the building, he saved me."

"Really?"

"Mhm. He has taught me a lot, too."

"Oh." Lucy pouted again. "Well still, fuck him."

"Hey, don't act like you're not friends with sketchy troublemakers, either." Jade scolded her cousin while keeping her attention focused on the microscope. She heard her cousin exhale defeatedly.

"I'm assuming you're talking about me." Naraku announced.

"Just about how hot you are and stuff." Jade replied dryly.

"I doubt your cousin thinks that."

"You're super hot, man. How do you keep the ladies off of you?" Lucy added sarcastically.

"My personality." Naraku said, glancing at Jade when she began giggling in agreement. "I want you to finish my other core before the break ends, Jade."

"I was going to do that after this."

"Say please, asshole." Lucy demanded coldly. Naraku inhaled through his nose deeply as he slowly approached Jade. He plucked his blue latex gloves off and removed his safety glasses from his face.

"Finish my core before the break ends or else I will steal your remaining assignments of the semester." Naraku then smiled sweetly. "Please."

"Let me stab him." Lucy pleaded in Spanish.

"He is going to one-up you every time." Jade told her calmly. She then turned back to Naraku and looked up at him. "I'll finish it today."

"Good girl." Naraku patted Jade on her head before turning around. She felt the force of her cousin leaping out of her seat. Jade latched onto Lucy's arms and pulled her back. Naraku turned and smirked.

"Let go!" Lucy spat.

"I agree. Let her go." Naraku teased.

"Luce, sit!" Jade shouted. "He's instigating you!"

"Fine." she relented and Jade let go. Her combative cousin lunged forward and swiped Naraku's black notebook from the table. His expression darkened as he tossed his safety glasses onto the table, striding towards her quickly.

"I am now tired of your games." Naraku stated icily. He watched as her hand left her pocket and flicked open a lighter. The orange flame danced at the corner of his notebook; his entire life was at her mercy.

"I'm not playing." Lucy growled angrily. "Apologize to my cousin! Nicely!"

"Lucy-" Jade began.

"I don't hear any remorse!"

"Jade," Naraku called out. She looked at him with shock. "I'm sorry for speaking to you like that."

"What about the water?"

"I'm sorry for splashing you."

"Now, kindly ask her to finish your core,"

"Would you finish my core before the end of break?" Naraku sighed with annoyance. "Please?"

"I accept your apologies and I will finish it!" Jade said quickly as she stood up. "Okay, he did it. Now give it back."

"Whatever." Lucy flicked the lighter shut and frisbee'd the notebook towards Naraku, who caught it single-handedly. Before he could say or do anything, Jade grabbed Lucy's hand and pulled her out into the hallway. Once they were a short distance away from the lab, Jade turned back to her cousin.

"What were you thinking?" Jade hissed in Spanish.

"He shouldn't be treating you like that and you shouldn't let him! If he's doing it just to annoy me and you're letting him, what am I supposed to think then?" Lucy snapped back as she pointed at Jade furiously.

"I can't stop him."

"Then you tell him, "Fuck your core!""

"It's my job! It's what he pays me to do!"

"Then quit! You won fifteen thousand dollars! You can do it again! What the fuck do you need him for?"

"That money isn't going to last much longer due to loans and bills, Lucy! What if I get sick again? What if I need a new car? And I can't take off whenever to go play in tournaments! I got lucky!"

"You can't-"

"Luce, I love you, and I know you have my back, but you can't do things like that. If I'm not working for an asshole now, I'm going to work for an asshole later. Sometimes, you just have to suck it up and hold out until you can find something else. This is me holding out." Jade explained, placing her hands on her cousin's shoulders. "You can't do things like that if you're wanting a job, okay? Schools won't accept that, either. Auntie is definitely not going to react the way you want her to if you act like this."

"I know, but you can't be a complete doormat, either."

"I'm not. Just because I don't fight back or yell, that doesn't mean I'm a doormat. I've tagged him back plenty of times in my own way."

"Fine." Lucy crossed her arms. "I'm not apologizing to him."

"That's fine."

When they walked back into the lab, Jade saw Naraku laying out foil on the table. His sediment core, which was held in a plastic tube, was standing against the counter behind him.

"I said I would do it." Jade walked towards him.

"I have time to kill; go back to your water bears." he told her.

"Please let this go." she whispered to him. He locked gazes with her and said nothing. Jade held her hands up and turned around.

Within a few minutes, Jade figured out why Naraku decided to cut the core himself; the smell from the decomposing biological material was atrocious. He was used to it, Jade wasn't as affected by it as she used to be, but Lucy had her nose and mouth covered and she was glaring at Jade, then at Naraku, and then back at Jade.

"How do you deal with it?" her voice was muffled.

"You get used to it." Jade answered. She smiled when she saw the familiar wiggling and eight chubby legs. "Found one!"

"It looks like a caterpillar," Lucy said as she leaned closer to the monitor to get a better look.

"Mhm. They can survive in almost any environment, including space."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Some think that they are from space because they can survive in such extreme conditions. Why develop the ability if they've never been there?"

"That's actually pretty cool."

"Their lifespan is only about a year, though."

"Can I...do the thing?" Lucy asked, pointing at the scope.

"Yeah!" Jade let her cousin take her chair to begin her own search for microscopic life. She pulled on gloves and walked over to Naraku. "Will you let me help?"

"I'm alternating knives, so you can clean them between uses." Naraku agreed. He lined up the blade with the meter stick and sliced through the jelly-like core. He scooped the half-centimeter section he cut into a labeled plastic bag and traded knives with Jade, who began cleaning the used blade.

"Is it me or does this have a purple reflection to it?" Jade asked, pointing at the remaining core. It was slight, but whenever she moved, the brown color seemed to have a purple iridescence shimmering across its surface.

"I noticed it, too." Naraku replied, saying nothing more. Jade rolled her eyes.

 _'You are such a baby sometimes. It's unreal.'_ she dried the knife off and traded with Naraku again.

"I found another one." Lucy called out. Jade quickly walked over to her cousin and nodded. "That one's bigger, too."

"I found a worm, too."

"If you click that icon, it will let you screencap." Jade pointed to the corner of the screen.

"Sweet. I can send these to Mom so she knows I'm learning."

Jade walked back to Naraku, who held his hand out for the knife Jade held. "What are you doing Thursday?" she asked him quickly.

"Working."

"All day?"

"That is the plan since I'm behind schedule thanks to my sponsors' ridiculous actions." Naraku stared at her. "Why?"

"I was going to invite you to my place for some food and Dank Souls. Sango and Kagome are going to their boyfriends' things, Lucy is stuck with me, and-"

"What time?"

"Uh," Jade paused. She didn't expect him to give in so easily, especially with his current foul mood. "Is three okay?"

"Three is fine. I will bring the weed."

"What?"

"You said you're having food and Dank Souls. What is Dank Souls if you don't have something dank?"

"You have weed?" Lucy asked eagerly.

"Knife," Naraku demanded. Jade quickly cleaned it off and handed it to him.

"Okay. I'm sold."

"He has weed?" Lucy repeated loudly.

 **000000**

The door clicked shut as Naraku slid his coat off and hung it on a hook. Jade insisted he stay the night after their Thanksgiving weed binge, but he was feeling restless and motivated. It was difficult enough sitting with her when ideas were being born and refined in his head, but he did as she asked, and now he was doing what he wanted.

The crystal heart was beating faster than it was earlier in the day, so Naraku counted and timed them and recorded them in his notebook. He leaned towards the case and saw pieces of crystals that fell from the main cluster to the bottom of the case. They were pointed and slender, just like the shard he started with.

 _'I would open it, but the cluster has grown over the door I made. If these are as strong as the original shard, I probably don't have the strength to break them.'_ Naraku tried anyway, but as soon as he applied pressure on the door, he felt just how unyielding the material was. He would have to break through the bottom half of the case and he wasn't certain if he wanted to yet. _'I assume there is more of this out there, but is there another heart? If my lake cores are accurate, then the lake was contaminated with this about five-hundred years ago. If I could do this within six months, then what would five-hundred years look like?'_

"I need seismic or radar data." he said under his breath as he opened his laptop. Japan was a volcanically active chain of islands and it sat on the boundary between two oceanic and two continental tectonic plates; there had to be plenty of data sitting around.

 _'If this attached to biological material, that material would likely sink to the bottom of the lake. The bottom of the lake should be full of these shards, which might be recorded with the equipment.'_

While waiting for some of the papers' PDFs to download, Naraku began performing push-ups. If his body couldn't handle a full work-out, then he was going to do small bursts of simple ones until he regained his stamina. His body didn't look weaker, his weight and measurements hadn't changed, but something else was draining him.

 _'I need to take the possibility of my sponsors feeding me lines of bullshit into consideration. I've confirmed the obvious characteristics of the lake; there's no reason to lie to me about those because I can easily calculate them myself. However, the data from my first core doesn't match up with theirs. The difference margins aren't wide, but they are there and it has happened with nearly everything I've tested. Their results tell of an extreme, but still habitable, lake. My results fall below habitable.'_ Naraku flipped onto his back and began a set of sit-ups. _'Their sulfur measurements make the least amount of sense when compared to my data, so I should test the sulfur levels myself because it's probably much higher than what they've told the world.'_

Naraku started with the oldest paper. It was almost as old as he was and the research was conducted by American scientists, which pleased Naraku. They were less likely to have made-up their data. They were measuring the swelling of the ground within their marked area in hopes of being able to possibly predict an eruption. The measured area included his lake and the study was conducted over the course of two years.

"Hm," Naraku suspected he wasn't going to find anything useful. Plenty of data, but nothing he could single out. He skimmed through the methods and saw they had created a different graph for a separate set of data. They recorded tremors, too, but admitted that many of the tremors didn't correspond with the swelling, which didn't help their mission.

 _'That's odd,'_ he noticed. _'The lower values are nearly consistent with each other.'_ The paper went on to discuss those particular values, pointing out that the equipment could have been sitting on unstable surfaces or these tremors could have been due to plate boundaries located in the North. Japan was very active and unstable, so the measurements could have been anything. Naraku felt there was more to the story.

The website he found the papers on listed the current emails of the researchers on all of the papers, as well as links to their other works. He took a moment to think his actions through.

 _'Obviously, I cannot come right out about what I'm doing and there's a chance he may not know or remember anything else. However, I'm not losing anything by asking him questions.'_ It was worth the effort. As long as he worded his email carefully, he wouldn't give away anything.

Reading the remaining papers kept Naraku awake until late in the morning the following day. He did gather a few more points of data that seemed to align more with his than his sponsors', which all but confirmed that they were lying to him. They knew more than they let on, but he was still certain that he knew a little more than they did.

 _'What exactly are they hiding? No one acts like that unless they have something egregious to cover up.'_ he gently rubbed his tired eyes. _'Perhaps it's time I return to Japan and investigate it myself.'_

The crystal heart began beating quickly and Naraku stared at it. He wished he knew why it would randomly change pace. The beating was now frantic and the rhythm was off-kilter. Naraku started the timer on his phone, counting the beats while tapping his finger on his desk to match the rhythm. He wrote down the count when the timer reached a minute. A sharp, cracking noise shattered the silence of his office and the air thickened, almost like the summer humidity had returned with a vengeance.

"What...the fuck?" Naraku's body felt heavier, too, as if weighed down by some invisible force. He could still move and breathe, but it required more effort to do those things.

Suddenly, the heart returned to its default rhythm and the eerie weight was lifted immediately.

"Jade? Jade!" a concerned voice shrieked. "What's wrong? What're you looking at? Jade!

Naraku leapt out of his chair and looked down from his window. He felt his heart stutter before pounding against his chest almost as fast as the crystal heart moments before. Jade was standing on the sidewalk directly below his window! She was staring straight up with her head craned back at an awkward angle. Lucy was shaking her cousin by the shoulders, but Jade didn't budge or blink. Naraku backed away from the window with his hand clutching his shirt. He stumbled over his chair and caught himself, leaning against his desk.

"Wh-What the fuck?" he stammered, trying to control his breathing so he could think clearly.

"Someone help! Jade, please stop!" Lucy cried.

"No one is here," Naraku ran to his door, grabbing his coat where his keys and wallet resided. It was the day after a holiday; campus was dead. Naraku leapt down the staircases, skipping several steps and hoping that his body wouldn't betray him. When he burst from the doors to the outside, Lucy jumped, but she immediately exhaled.

"Oh my God, I never thought I'd be happy to see you!" Lucy exclaimed breathlessly.

"What happened?" Naraku asked her.

"I-I don't know! She was finishing something up in the lab and just randomly ran out! So I followed her, thinking sh-she heard something, and I found her like this!"

 _'Jade, what have I done to you?'_ Naraku now stood in front of her, but she didn't react. He checked her pulse and found it to be relatively normal. Her breathing was slow and deep, as if she was asleep.

"You don't think chemicals did this to her, do you?" Lucy asked worriedly.

"No. Also, don't pull a knife on me; I'm checking her reflexes." he answered, pulling Jade's right arm up. "Hold her arm." he ordered. Lucy held it at the angle he held it at. He grasped her arm at the elbow, pressing his thumb into the bend. He then flicked his thumb. Jade's arm jerked quickly and tensely. He frowned and did it again; the same result. The fact that it was reacting was fine; it was how fast and strongly it was reacting that intrigued him.

"What? Is that bad?"

"Not necessarily; more so strange."

"No shit? None of this is normal!"

Naraku cast her an impatient glare, but he bent down slightly, pulling Jade's arm over his shoulder and scooping her body and legs into his arms. Lucy followed him into the science building, cursing and crying. Naraku placed Jade on the couch and then strode over to the sink, grabbing a beaker and filling it with cold water.

"Is that going to work?" Lucy pointed at the beaker.

"I don't know. Let's find out." Naraku slowly poured it onto Jade's face. Immediately, her eyes blinked and her entire body cringed and coiled up in reaction. Her arms tried to wipe the water from her face, but they dropped with the rest of her body, seemingly exhausted.

"What the fuck, Naraku?" Jade groaned.

"Jade!" her cousin screamed, leaning down and hugging her tightly. Just by looking at her face, Naraku could tell she had no idea what just happened. Though, he wasn't too sure either, and he was conscious for all of it.

"Did I pass out? The fumes weren't that bad."

"Dude, you fuckin'...you went zombie on me!"

"What?"

"You ran out and then stared up at the sky and you wouldn't look at me or talk, and Naraku kept fucking with your arm, and-"

"I heard her screaming, so I investigated." Naraku interrupted calmly. "I checked your vitals and reflexes; that is all."

"Well, you carried her in here and poured water on her face,"

"Indeed." he agreed, refraining from rolling his eyes.

"You were here?" Jade asked him while rubbing her head.

"I was in my office."

"All night?"

"Quit deflecting." he scolded her. "How are you feeling? Nauseous, tired,"

"Like I just woke up," she shrugged. "I feel fine."

Naraku glanced back at the table and saw his samples that she had been rinsing and her keys. He swiped her keys and held them out to Lucy. "Can you drive?"

"Y-Yeah,"

"Take her home."

"Naraku, I'm fine. This is probably-"

"If you don't go home with your cousin willingly, then I will take you to the hospital forcibly; your choice." Naraku crossed his arms and inhaled. "I should just take you anyway. It has been a while since you've told me to go fuck myself."

"I'll go home." Jade relented. "And you can go fuck yourself anyway."

Naraku turned to Lucy. "When you get her home, make sure she stays there."

"Fuck you." Lucy bit.

"I'm glad we settled this civilly." he said with a grin, turning around to finish rinsing his samples.

"You can't even be nice when you're being nice." Lucy complained.

"He doesn't know how to communicate his feelings." Jade told her, standing up slowly. Lucy reached out to hold and steady her.

"I'm about to communicate my feelings of impatience if you don't stop talking about me as if I'm not here."

When the two women closed the lab door behind themselves, Naraku let out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. His pulse quickened and so did his breathing. Naraku bent over the table to rest his head on his folded arms. Starting from the beginning, he walked himself through what happened.

 _'That feeling...the air thickening and weighing me down...was it...communicating with the portion of itself residing in her bloodstream? I'm no longer going to ask myself if it's possible, because it clearly is. What else could it have been?'_ Naraku straightened his posture. _'I swallowed a drop, so why isn't it affecting me?'_

An hour later, Naraku finally finished rinsing his samples and began writing down a new project plan. He was going to have to check sulfur and oxygen levels since he suspected his sponsors were lying. Jade was going to have to stay away from his office and the lab, but how was he going to pull that off? She rarely visited his office, but the lab was where she spent most of her time on campus. With a begrudging exhale, Naraku accepted the fact that he couldn't stop her without telling her why.

 _'Is what I'm doing more important than her?'_ he asked himself. The logical part of his mind gave a resounding, "Yes!" Of course this was more important than one woman. She was smart, resourceful, reliable, and kind to a fault, but she was one person. She didn't outweigh the other lives Naraku could save with his research. On the other hand, he didn't truly care about saving those people; he wanted the credit, the authority, and nothing more. That one woman meant more to him than the billions of other people on the planet. Unlike them, she knew his worth without needing an extravagant project to prove it. _'Not even Kikyou wanted me to pursue this life. She wanted me to settle, to be content with her and whatever life we made together - I don't settle. That isn't me.'_ He had his answer.

"I must push forward with this. If the universe is kind, she will be fine."


	25. The Call of the Heart

**The Call of the Heart**

 **A/N - The events of Chapter 25 and 26 are connected, but I decided to split them into two smaller chapters instead of having one obnoxiously huge one. There might be a delay with Chapter 27 due to important events happening in my life and my beta reader/editor's life. Thank you for reading this far. I hope you're enjoying it.**

A sigh of relief was breathed when the brush slid through his hair smoothly. He knew better than to let his hair go for even a day, but he actually forgot to tend to it in the midst of his experiments. It took a shower, a few rounds of conditioner, and patience when he had to swap out the brush and comb, but his hair was now tamed. The split ends displeased him, but he knew it was time for a trim anyway.

 _'I should have tried it in a different spot,'_ he frowned when he saw the thin line of pink tracing down the top of his arm to his wrist. His goal was to gradually increase the injuries' severity to observe how long they healed, but he didn't take how obvious it was into account. The higher the severity, the more solution he added, so the glow was more noticeable. _'I usually think of those things beforehand, but- what is that?'_ Naraku leaned forward and tilted his head forward. Using a comb, he singled out the reflective strand of hair and plucked it from his head straightening his posture to examine it.

"Hah," he choked out a laugh, but he grit his teeth instead of smiling. It was a gray hair. He dropped it into the trash and leaned forward again, carefully inspecting his hair for any others. A second one appeared, so he plucked it and banished it to the trash can with its brother.

After wrapping his arm in gauze to cover the glow, he dressed and left to teach the last lab class of the semester. Fortunately for him, it was an exam, so he didn't have to teach or even speak. He didn't need Jade's assistance, either, but she already told him she was showing up anyway.

 _'I don't want her anywhere near the heart and it's almost like she knows.'_ The thought was sarcastic, but a cold blade of terror pierced his chest; what if she did know subconsciously? What if the heart's influence over her was stronger than it appeared? _'I'm being paranoid. Jade has always wanted to be around me.'_ That thought melted the previous one and warmed his whole body. It made him severely uncomfortable. He even shifted around in his seat as he waited for the light to turn green.

The room was quiet, but not silent. Pencils scratched away, buttons on calculators were tapped, papers flapped, and, Naraku's favorite, the hopeless and annoyed sighs and groans of the students who couldn't solve the equations he created for their final exam. Since the lab class was ending a week earlier than regular classes, he figured he would send his students off with a final, "Fuck you."

 _'I don't care what anyone says; this is better than sex.'_ Naraku chuckled with delight when he caught one student, a brown-haired girl with glasses, glaring at him heatedly. When their eyes met, she rolled hers and looked down at her exam to continue writing. His eyes closed as he savored the moment.

While the students suffered, Jade was gathering the glassware and organizing them onto a cart to return to the storage room. Naraku debated helping her, but then remembered there was a room full of people. He tried once more to convince her not to show up, but Jade insisted that she would find something to do. That wasn't the issue, but he didn't argue any further. It wasn't like he could come up with a good reason to keep her away other than the truth, which was the last thing he wanted to use. He even tried to think of errands to send her on, but nothing would have kept her away entirely. She was too good of an assistant...and he preferred her presence, even if it meant she was in danger.

The first student handed Naraku his exam and left the room promptly. Naraku pulled out a red pen, ready to color the young man's entire exam red, but Naraku's hopes were dashed after viewing the first five answers.

 _'This one studied.'_ Naraku almost despised that fact, but then he realized that was less work for him in the end, so he quickly got over it. The soft clanging of glass alerted him that Jade finished collecting the equipment and was delivering it to the storage room.

Three more students finished their exams by the time Jade returned. She immediately walked to the desk and leaned down in front of Naraku.

"Want me to start grading?" she asked in a low voice. Naraku stared her down without blinking, slowly holding up the grading key. She shook her head. "Just say yes or no, dude."

"Yes." Naraku said quickly. Jade reached up to grab the paper, but Naraku bent his wrist and pulled it from her reach. She tried again and Naraku pulled it farther away. Jade lunged forward and grabbed his wrapped wrist and he panicked and pulled her forward onto the desk with a blunt thump.

"Seriously?" she grumbled.

"Jade, I told you not right now. There are people in here." Naraku said loudly in a fake scolding tone. Everyone was staring at them now; some were smiling, some were too upset to smile, and the rest looked completely unamused.

"Fuck you, dude." Jade pushed herself up and back onto her feet.

"I said later."

"You're hilarious." she replied dryly. Naraku opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when the loud scraping of a stool cracked the silence. He glanced over in time to see Sara the Rainbow Girl sprinting out of the room. Her materials and exam remained at her seat. Kagome grimaced as she waved Jade over. Jade walked over to her friend, who leaned up and cupped her hands around Jade's ear, whispering something that seemed to simultaneously humor and disturb her as her face twisted from a smile to a cringing, inaudible scream.

"Why?" Jade whined softly.

"I don't know." Kagome shrugged. Naraku cleared his throat, using his finger to signal Jade to approach him. She did with a heavy sigh, leaning down in front of Naraku once again.

"Explain," he ordered.

"Uh...you can't guess?"

"Was she irritated by our public display of affection?"

"If by irritated you mean jealous, yeah,"

"Jealous?" Naraku was taken aback. He thought it was clear that he was embarrassing Jade for his own amusement...and defense.

"She tried getting with you over a month ago,"

"I gave her your workplace number and told her to go away,"

"That just means that you're, uh, shit, what's that word," Jade held her finger up as she pulled out her phone, typing away to search for something. "A tsundere,"

"Where did you learn that?" Naraku asked slowly, feeling the cold, tingling sensation of realization creeping up his body.

 _'Does she think that about me because I've stopped tormenting her?'_ he blinked. His jaw clenched tightly. _'I...am not a tsundere!'_

"I told you, a chunk of my viewers are weeaboos. I'm pretty sure Sara is a weeb. I've seen the mangas she carries around. I also live with Japanese roommates. I work with several Japanese men." Jade looked up. "That's all weird, now that I think about it."

"So, she has a fetish for Japanese men?" he nodded in the direction of the rainbow girl's seat.

"Probably. In her defense, though," Jade paused, waving her hand to showcase Naraku. He couldn't help but to snort and smirk in response. He had no disagreements there. Naraku leaned back and waved the grading key at Jade. She snatched it from him and shook her head. "Thank you, Tsundere-Senpai."

"I will quarter you, scatter your limbs across the country, and keep your skull as a mug. Your family will never find a single piece of you."

"Oooooh, touchy. I think I found a new nickname for you." Jade snickered. "Daddy Tsundere-Senpai."

"On second thought, I'll keep you alive, but just barely."

When class was over, Naraku walked back to his office. Jade offered to follow and help him finish grading, but he insisted they would finish later and told her to go study for Bruce's exam. Naraku placed the folder holding the lab exams on his desk and sat down, opening his laptop to check his emails. He saw he received one from the seismologist he contacted the previous week, so he was curious to know what answers he had.

 ** _'Please excuse the informality of my response. My phone doesn't believe in formats. Thank you for your interest in my research. I do have additional data of that area if you're interested. The questions you've asked me are unique and complex. Would you be willing to schedule a video chat with me so I can explain them in person? It's easier than writing out a novel.'_**

 _'He's far more prompt than Bruce.'_ Naraku exhaled and sent a response accepting the researcher's offer.

The crystal heart's beating had slowed down and remained slow for almost a week. It reminded Naraku of the heart beats of hibernating animals, so he wondered if it was doing just that. It built up and expended energy just to...what? Call to Jade and hypnotize her for five minutes? Is that all it did or was there more?

 _'Will it be stronger the next time it happens? What will it do if it has her fully under control? What is its goal?'_ Naraku couldn't deny his curiosity. It overpowered everything else in his mind. As much as he regretted involving Jade, he couldn't help but to also be intrigued by her responses to the crystals. _'My sediment samples show the microscopic life being completely overtaken by the substance, so what does it do? Does it institute a hive mind?'_ A small, dark part of him wanted to text Jade and ask her to come to his office to see if the heart would do anything. He sighed and shook his head. He still couldn't figure out why it didn't affect him. He swallowed a drop of the pink solution and Jade swallowed a drop of the purple; the heart was a mixture of the two, so why was he left alone?

"Would it do the same to me if I swallowed a drop of the purple?" he murmured as he scratched his head. A rampage was inevitable, but would he become violent if no one was around?

The sun was setting by the time Naraku finished grading the last of the exams. He turned his desk lamp on, but it didn't turn on, which annoyed him. He switched the light bulb out a couple of days prior.

 _'The lamp must have faulty wiring.'_ He walked to the light switch next to the door and flipped it.

Nothing. The only source of lights were the setting sun and the crystal heart. Cursing under his breath about the old building, he packed up his things and decided to head home.

When he arrived home, he received a response from the researcher, asking if chatting in an hour was possible. Naraku quickly responded with a yes. He decided to clean his apartment in the meantime. It wasn't dirty, but it wasn't up to his standards and hadn't been for a few weeks. His illness, whatever it was, finally subsided. His stamina needed some work, but otherwise, he felt fine.

Naraku waited patiently for the researcher to call him. He had several pages of notes he typed out. The green phone icon appeared on his screen and he clicked on it, straightening his posture and preparing himself.

"Ah, Naraku, I assume? Dr. Anderson's grad student?" the old man asked. His hair and beard were snow-white, which helped his blue eyes shine.

"Yes. You know Bruce?"

"Know him? Not too much. Know of him? Yeah, I've reviewed several of his articles over the years. Your name was on one of them a couple of years ago. That's impressive for someone who was an undergraduate at the time."

"I designed and built the isolation box they tested the samples in."

"Huh, well then, you should put your name out there more often. People would kill to have someone build those kinds of devices if that meant saving a few bucks." the man laughed lightly. "Well, I'm Dr. Weiss. You said you have questions about my seismic data from Japan?"

"That and I also wanted to pick your brain about what you remember from that area,"

"I remember it was a bitch." Dr. Weiss said with a smile. Even his teeth were flawlessly white. "We ended up staying a few weeks longer than we originally planned because of interferences."

"The interferences are the sets of data on the smaller table?"

"That's correct."

"The reason you separated them was because they were constant; what did you mean by constant?"

"There were constant tremors registering at the same two frequencies while the others varied. Now, Japan sits where four tectonic plates meet, and it's volcanically active, so tremors are normal. Those aren't normal."

"Nearby city or town interference?"

"No, we ruled that out. So, the Y value is how strong they were, the X value is the recorded time, but the time is wrong on the paper. It was a typo, but by the time we realized it, it was too late. So we posted a corrected paper, but most people only see that paper due to everything being organized by dates."

"What should the time be?" Naraku frowned.

"It should be in intervals of single seconds, not intervals of three."

"Odd."

"That's for a reason; the points of data spread out more when you do that, and they couple up," Dr. Weiss scribbled on a piece of paper in front of him. "It should look like this," he held the paper up.

 _'One, two, nine second pause, three, four, nine second pause, five, six, nine second pause,'_ Naraku recognized the pattern immediately. It looked exactly like the graphs he made of the crystal's heart beats. The only difference was his heart's beats were faster than these.

"This happened constantly?" Naraku pressed, trying to keep his leg from bouncing with excitement.

"Constantly. All day, every day, and it never changed. We have ideas of what caused it, but we weren't able to confirm any of them." Dr. Weiss sighed. "I'm curious, though; what does this have to do with a chemistry student's thesis?"

"I need to understand the area if I'm going to understand why-"

"Why your stuff is purple?" he interrupted coolly. "My colleague saw your presentation in Colorado. He thought it was ironic that it was over an area within the area we studied. I find it ironic that you contacted me a month later."

"Indeed."

"Did they cut your funding like they did to us?"

Naraku kept his expression calm, but his blood was pumping. This man knew more than he was letting on. "Yes."

"When we studied the area, we weren't allowed to go near the totally-not-dead-or-dangerous lake. People talk, though, and some of them went missing. We were there a month and nine people, including one child, disappeared from the nearby town. I'm not saying it had anything to do with it, but if it looks and quacks like a duck,"

"People are also superstitious. They believe the lake is cursed."

"After what I saw, if someone told me it was the literal gate to Hell, I would believe them." Dr. Weiss stated. His entire demeanor had changed. He transitioned from a cheerful grandfather to a traumatized veteran within seconds. "I was told to never speak of it, but they can't stop me now. How open open-minded are you, son?"

"Extremely." Naraku answered seriously, refraining from flinching at, "son." It had been several years since he was called that and it was an insult throughout his life more often than not.

"Heh, I take it you've found more than colorful microbes, then."

"Oh yes."

"It was the last night we were allowed to camp in our study area. Here we are, a group of geologists, petrologists, seismologists, volcanologists, and we can't camp outside? We had certain places marked on our maps to help orient us if we got lost or too drunk; there was a swelling on a mountain that looked like a tit, which meant you were looking West, and four miles almost directly East was a decaying deer lying between two trees facing West, and the lake was couple miles East from that point,"

 _'Does every person in a geology-related field have a crude sense of humor? Perhaps I pursued the wrong field.'_ Naraku rarely used the word, "love," but he did love chemistry. A good portion of the professionals and students had stiff senses of humor, though. Bruce was one exception.

"The reason I tell you that is because I want to emphasize this point; I saw that deer's fresh carcass decay over the period of time we stayed in the area. Some animals picked at it, but it was mostly left alone; that's pretty weird. I didn't think too much of it then, though. So, I knew that deer by sight pretty well."

"What? Did you see it walking around at one point?" Naraku joked sarcastically. Dr. Weiss inhaled through his nose and when he exhaled, he smiled gently while nodding.

"Yeah, actually, I did. It was the last night we were allowed to camp. There was some drama between two researchers who were screwing each other, so my colleague, the one who saw you in Colorado, went for a walk and I went with him. We got a little turned around, but we knew what to do. I found the tit mountain, oriented myself, and walked, and walked, then I turned around and walked back...where was the deer? My colleague found the two trees, but no deer carcass. Whatever, right? A scavenger must have dragged it off." Dr. Weiss closed his eyes and almost looked like he was in pain. "I had this sudden feeling of dread, I felt heavier somehow, it was hard to breathe, and my colleague felt it, too. It was almost like some primal instinct of ours knew something before we did. I heard that high-pitched bleat and turned East and there it was, standing right at the edge of the forest, staring back at us. I almost thought it was a statue. And the chunks of flesh that were missing were being replaced by some purple or pink material, glowing. I couldn't quite tell what it was. We ran. We told everyone. Most of our colleagues actually believed us, because we're respected scientists, so why would we make that up? But we were told to not speak of it and we were restricted from camping from that point on and our funding was constantly under threat."

"I see." Naraku was unsure of what to think. It wasn't that he didn't believe the man; he grew a literal heart. He wasn't sure what to think of dead creatures walking around, though.

 _'The heaviness he felt, the breathing difficulty - I felt that last week when Jade...even her cousin called her zombie-like.'_

"Well, you're not laughing, so I'm assuming you believe me a little."

"I do." Naraku nodded. "Did you see anything else?"

"No. The institute in charge of rehabilitating the area began patrolling more, so they were making sure we didn't see anything else." Dr. Weiss shrugged. "That's really all I have."

"It's helpful and not at the same time."

"I can only imagine. I don't know what's going on over there, and I don't know what you're doing, but the dead should be left alone. No good can come of something that reanimates dead bodies."

"I beg to differ."

"You're a man, a young one, an ambitious one, and intelligent - why do you think they willingly sent you samples?"

"My guess is they're either fishing for other opinions or they're running out of scientists and need the additional help, hence asking a graduate student and not an established professional. Their first mistake was assuming I would play by their rules."

"How sure are you that you're not an experiment to them?"

"Please, I'm my own experiment."

"Don't be shocked if they offer you a job next," the professor used his fingers to air-quote the word, "job." Naraku knew what he was implying.

"Let them."

"Hah, well, you have a set on you - I'll give you that." the old man sighed heavily; a tired smile appearing on his face. "They're desperate and people do terrible things when they're desperate. If they can't hurt you, they'll hurt someone you love."

"It must truly suck to be them; I don't love anyone." Naraku replied, seeing Kikyou's face in his mind and quickly banishing it.

"I guess they chose the wrong guy this time. Well, best of luck to you, Naraku. This will stay between us."

The call ended and Naraku closed his laptop, mulling over the entire conversation. If his suspicions about how the crystals worked were correct, then he was willing to bet everything that sitting at the very bottom of the lake was another crystal heart, and judging by the, "tremors," it was a large one.

 _'It might be an entire organism at this point if the approximate guess of five-hundred years this has been occurring is taken into account.'_ He inhaled deeply and looked up, leaning back on his couch. It was then he realized Dr. Weiss touched upon two sore spots of his; son and Kikyou. He clearly didn't mean to, but it burned all the same. _'How irritating. I didn't love her. I was a boy and desperate; nothing more.'_

 **000000**

"Close," Sesshomaru said, crossing his arms. "A couple of your molecules are out of place."

"Damn it." Jade turned back to the dry-erase board and huffed. The structure she drew was her best guess, so she didn't know what else to do. She placed the cap back onto the green marker she was holding and bit her lips together.

 _'I don't even have an idea.'_ she uncapped the marker and began to slowly draw a second structure, hoping her mistakes would become obvious.

"Stop," he ordered. "There is your first mistake. You can find your second."

"I seriously don't know. I'm guessing."

"Your guesses are too close to be made out of thin air. You know what you're doing; you just aren't confident." Sesshomaru picked up the blue marker and pulled off the cap. "These are the individual structures,"

"Okay."

"Has Naraku not taught you this?"

"He has, I'm just not a genius, so I don't know what the fuck he's saying."

"You should work on your confidence while you study."

"When I understand this, I'll be confident." Jade said with a frown. She threw her hands up when she saw that Sesshomaru had drawn dots and lines she had never seen before. "Okay, I blinked. What are you doing?"

"This is a 3-D model. The hydrogen and bromine are sticking out of the board and the carbon and carbenium are flat."

"Single bonds? Between the carbon ions?"

"Yes."

"Cool. I know one thing."

"Your original structure is close. You would score above average with it."

"I need more than that to maintain my grade."

"Let's try a different one," Sesshomaru suggested, grabbing the eraser to clear the board of their structures. He glanced down and saw Jade slowly massaging her temples with her eyes closed. "Let's take a break instead."

"Yeah," she replied defeatedly. Sesshomaru walked back to the other side of the table to continue organizing his papers. Jade stared down at her notes. Different molecules and their definitions were color coded between red, black, green, blue, and purple pen marks.

 _'She is overwhelmed and has been since her coma.'_ Sesshomaru noted.

"I'm so fuuuuuuuucked, dude!" she cried out dramatically.

"You will do fine. Bruce will curve the final." Sesshomaru told her.

"You sure?"

"I am. He told me not to tell anyone, so," he cut off and locked gazes with her.

"I didn't hear you." she replied with a smile.

"Did you measure out the salt for me?"

"Yeah. I did a lot of shit because I didn't want to look at this." she pointed at her notebook.

"Good. That will save me time." Sesshomaru debated thanking her, but decided against it.

An hour of silence passed between them before Jade decided to call it a day and go home to get some rest.

 **000000**

"Jade, dismiss your alarm!" Sango sang out as she knocked on the door.

"Looking for it," Jade replied, noticing her hands were shaking as she peeled the blankets back.

"Let's go work out! It'll be fun!"

"Yeah, okay," Jade breathed, dismissing her alarm when she found her phone.

After cleaning up and getting dressed, Sango drove Jade to the gym with her. Jade felt bad for not giving Sango her full attention while she chatted lightly about her winter break plans, but her mind was frantic and she wasn't sure what to do about her exam.

"Working out before a final always helps me." Sango stated proudly as she lifted a weight and slid it onto the bar.

"That's because you like it." Jade grumbled.

"Come on, give it a shot,"

"Okay." Jade huffed, sitting down on the bench and laying under the bar. She grabbed the bar and waited for Sango to grab it between her hands.

"Now, don't just use your arms when you bench press, alright? You want to use your chest and shoulders, too." Sango explained. "Keep your feet flat,"

"Okay." Jade inhaled through her nose and lifted the bar, her eyes widening when she realized how light the weight was. It was almost like air!

"What? Too heavy?"

"Too light. This is nothing."

"Huh. Well, I did start you out at the recommended low for a beginner, but we can toss a couple more on if it's that easy."

"Yeah, it's like a cardboard box to me."

"That's good, though. You're stronger than average." Sango pointed out, sliding on a couple more weights.

"Sure." Jade replied. She waited for Sango again before lifting the bar and pumping a few reps before sighing heavily. "It's still really light, Sango."

"Really?" she looked down at Jade incredulously. "Still?"

"Mhm."

"Well, then, we can go to one-hundred," Sango walked away to grab a few more weights. Jade huffed and looked around slowly, wondering if Koga and Ginta were working out, too.

"How much can you bench, Sango?" Jade asked when her friend returned.

"One-twenty-five," Sango answered, grunting as she bent down to pick up another weight. "I'm kind of jealous. It took me a while to bench one-hundred."

"Really?"

"Mhm. You ready?"

"Yeah," Jade lifted the bar again, holding back a curse when she realized how light it still was. She decided to go with it to keep the peace. "I have a question,"

"I'm listening,"

"When I had that meltdown, they told me that I was...I was able to tackle a dude to the ground and beat him senseless. I was able to break free of two different holds. I outran Naraku and, well, you know,"

"Yeah, he's fast and has plenty of stamina,"

"He put me in a hold and I broke free," Jade placed the bar back on the stand to rest. "How am I capable of doing something like that? Physically? He should've been able to overpower me without breaking a sweat."

"Well, it's hard to say,"

"Look, I'm a computer and video game nerd, so working out isn't something I really focus on. These past couple of months with you have been the most fit I've been,"

"I think you were more fit than you think. You hiked around a lot all your life."

"Yeah, that's how I stayed lean, I guess, but I was never strong, you know? I never had super defined muscles like you. I was never fast or couldn't run for long periods of time."

"The only thing I can think of is that your adrenaline kicked in." Sango took a quick drink from her bottle of water. "I've heard of cases where drug addicts become stronger. The drugs kind of inhibit their brain's ability to regulate the body's restraints."

"Restraints? So when I work out, I'm not doing my best?"

"You're doing the best your brain will allow you to do." Sango pointed to her bicep. "Everyone has the ability to lift more than they can, a lot more, but that makes the muscles over-extend and hurt themselves. So, without even thinking about it, your brain already has alarms set up to make sure that you don't do that. Drugs can sever that link."

"Oh," Jade scratched her head. "I was a crack baby, so maybe that's why I'm stronger than I real-"

"Oh my-" Sango covered her mouth to stop the stream of giggles erupting from herself. She then looked at Jade worriedly. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I shouldn't laugh at that! I didn't- you were a crack baby?"

"It's okay. I think it's funny. But yeah, I was born addicted to crack. Could that be why I'm stronger when my adrenaline is going? I have some superhero ability to turn off my brain so I can be stronger?"

"Uh, I don't know. I don't think there are any studies on that kind of thing. It might be possible." Sango replied, rubbing her mouth in an attempt to make her smile disappear.

"Hm, I'll have to ask Naraku. He might know."

"Oh no, Jade, pleeeeeease don't tell him you were a crack baby," Sango whined.

"Why not? What's he going to say?" Jade asked with a shrug.

"He's going to make fun of you!"

"You laughed." Jade pointed out dryly.

"I...you caught me off guard! You said it funny!" her friend insisted strongly. Jade simply shook her head and smiled.

When they finished their bench presses, Jade and Sango moved over to the dumbbells to begin working on their curls. Jade glanced at the weights Sango chose so that she would know to go lower. Sango worked hard and Jade didn't want to take that pride away from her.

 _'Maybe I'm just overreacting to this stuff. Maybe I've always been this strong and never really tested it out.'_ Jade tried to console herself, but she knew for a fact that her reaction to first-frame movements in video games was recent. None of it explained her body's faster healing process, either. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted answers.

"You just have your chemistry final today?" Sango asked, placing her dumbbells down to rest.

"Yeah."

"It must be nice only having one exam."

"To be fair, I've worked with Naraku all summer and this entire semester."

"Right." Sango sighed. "Although, that was all your choice."

"I know." Jade snorted. "So, would you and Kagome like to visit my family's mountain resort for Spring Break next semester? Or sometime in the summer?"

"I would love to. I'm sure Kagome would, too. You'll have to ask her, though."

"I will."

"I'm curious to see what it's like up there and how you turned out the way you did. And Lucy, for that matter."

"It's just mountains and plateaus, ranches and superstitions, that stuff,"

"So, calm?"

"Uh-huh. Very relaxed, very go-with-the-flow,"

"That kind of sounds like my home. I come from a small village that's in some small mountains. A lot of people are farmers, some commute to the city, and then there are some who have traditional inns that tourists visit,"

"That sounds cool."

"Would you like to visit my home, too?"

"Sure!"

"We will have to plan this out. Kagome lives in Tokyo; she's the city girl."

"I noticed." Jade snorted.

The only thing the workout seemed to do for Jade was stress her out more than she already was. It didn't help that the room was freezing cold when everyone began taking their O-Chem exam. Bruce griped about the temperature, but also admitted there was nothing he could do about it.

 _'Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Me. Sideways. Question one and I don't even know.'_ Jade's leg shook anxiously. _'I should've smoked instead of working out. Lesson learned.'_

"What are you doing here?" Bruce's voice cut through the silence swiftly. Jade looked up and saw Sesshomaru, who was holding a stack of papers.

"He showed up. I left. You still haven't given me an office." Sesshomaru listed off quickly as he strode towards Jade.

"Fair." Bruce sighed, sitting back down at the desk. "I'll send the email now before I forget again."

"Yo," Jade whispered when Sesshomaru sat next to her. He eyed her carefully, but then nodded and began to read one of the various articles he possessed.

 _'The first few are multiple choice, so I have a chance,'_ Jade began crossing out the answers she knew were wrong. _'This one seems like the right answer.'_

"Hm," Sesshomaru hummed, sounding skeptical. Jade slowly turned to look at him and he stared back, raising his eyebrows slightly. "My apologies; I just saw something I didn't like,"

"Ah," Jade looked back down at her test. Then it hit her.

 _'Yeah, you didn't like my fucking answer!'_ she erased her answer and purposely chose the one she knew was wrong. Sesshomaru made the same noise and Jade bit her lips closed to prevent herself from smiling or giggling. _'This guy right here,'_

"Sesshomaru, why are you sitting next to her?" Bruce asked curiously. The other students looked over at them, too.

"Emotional support!" Jade blurted out. "I asked him to! He lied to you about being here because he's embarrassed!"

"You just blew his cover," Bruce held his hand out. "Does he even have emotions?"

"Nope. That's why he's here; his void of emotions eat mine...out of me," Jade said with a wide smile. From her experience, sex jokes were the ultimate conversation deflectors. The other students snorted and laughed, returning to their exams peacefully. Bruce stopped moving entirely; he didn't even blink. He just stared; his eyebrows furrowed, wrinkling his already wrinkled face more while his mouth hung open slightly. Even his hand hovered in the air, still gestured towards his two lab students.

"Those aren't the particular words I would have used," Sesshomaru added softly.

"Eat me." she snapped back playfully as she looked back down at her exam.

"Ew." Bruce finally grumbled.

 _'Shit. Fill-in-the-blank.'_ she thought after she turned the page over. _'Bruce gave us a word bank, but his wife must have closed her legs because he put ten extra words in here to spite us!'_

She returned to her original strategy of crossing out ones she knew were not possible. Sesshomaru was clever about signaling her, but at one point he became impatient with her terrible guesses and asked her if she was single - the answer had to be single bonds. She was on her own when it came to drawing the chemical structures and their bonds, though. He would let her know when she was wrong, but she had to figure out what was correct. Her confidence dissolved within minutes.

 _'I'm still going to fail! Fuuuuuuuck! I hate structures! Give me numbers!'_ she groaned and rested her head on the table, allowing her arms to dangle below her. A hand lightly rested on her back, right between her shoulder blades.

"That's the worst display of emotional support I've ever seen." Bruce announced dryly.

"I can't necessarily whip my dick out right here and now, Bruce." Sesshomaru retorted coolly. The class erupted into laughter and Jade reared up to stare at Sesshomaru, holding back her laughter. He simply shrugged.

"I'm not even mad." she told him.

"I'm...just...you're not wrong, but," Bruce couldn't even look at them anymore. He was massaging his temples with his eyes closed. "How long?"

"Twelve inches." Jade chirped with a cheeky smile. The only one who didn't find it humorous was Bruce. He looked like he was in pain.

"I meant how long have you two...I'm just going to shut up now." he whined.

"That is a wise decision, professor." Sesshomaru agreed, taking the opportunity to point a few things out to Jade before sitting back and holding up his paper again. Jade erased her mistakes and fixed them as best as she could and stood up to turn in her exam. Sesshomaru followed her quietly.

"Are you two fucking with me?" Bruce asked as he cringed.

"Why would we lie to you?" Sesshomaru asked back.

"To get revenge over not having an office and over my difficult exam,"

"I don't want an office," Jade replied flippantly.

"I doubt the exam is difficult." Sesshomaru added.

"Leave." Bruce growled irritably.

"Man," Jade huffed once they reached the elevator. "Bruce must think I'm super easy."

"To be fair, you do sell ridiculous lies rather convincingly." Sesshomaru tapped the button for the main floor.

"Ahaha, true." she giggled before looking up at him. "Thanks for doing that."

"I'm shocked you went along with it. Although, I purposely lied to you about a few of them. Turning in a perfect exam is suspicious."

"That's fine. I just want to maintain my grade. But seriously, thanks. You didn't have to-"

"You didn't have to finish all of my sample prep, so we're even."

"Cool." she nodded, crossing her arms and following him off the elevator. "Soooo...we fuckin' or what?"

For the first time, Sesshomaru openly smiled and chuckled with her.

 **000000**

Before Jade knew it, she was finished with her double shift after her exam that morning and it was time to shower and go to bed so she could be fully rested the next day. She stared at her ceiling, wondering where her day went, and slipped into a deep slumber. Her body felt unnaturally heavy that night.

She was running, but from what? Why? Jade slowed down and came to a complete stop, looking around aimlessly. It was dark, but she could still see somehow. Trees surrounded her and she realized she was in a forest. Immediately, her eyes caught something that stood out.

 _'Something is glowing,'_ she told herself, carefully starting in that direction. She remembered the dream she had in the coma; the pink light woke her up, so maybe it would do it again. Jade realized how insane she sounded, but what else was she going to do? She was trapped in her dream, fully aware of it, and able to move around. Standing still didn't sound like a good idea, especially if she was running in the first place.

"Why?" she whined after emerging from the trees. She was on a cliff now, which was overlooking a lake...a glowing lake. The color shimmered between pink and purple; Jade scratched her head.

 _'I know dreams usually don't make sense, but I usually don't realize that until after I wake up!'_ Jade exhaled loudly, looking around to see if there was an easy path down the cliff to the lake's edge, but there wasn't any she could see. _'Do I really want to go down there, though? Something doesn't feel right.'_ She looked down the cliff and bit her lips together in thought. It wasn't that she couldn't descend - she grew up in a mountainous region - but she wasn't sure if it was the right decision. Staying in one place seemed unwise and getting closer to the glowing lake seemed like bait...like it wanted her to.

"No," she whispered to herself condescendingly. Why did she think that? There was nothing around giving her any indication that it was a trap; it was just a feeling, a thought that she buried long ago and was now being unearthed by her fear...of what? "What am I scared of?"

"Me," a deep voice answered from behind her. Everything happened rapidly; she gasped, a hand shoved her, she tried to turn, to reach out and grab something, a hand grabbed her wrist, and she dug her heels into the side of the cliff.

 _'What is-'_ she looked up and felt her entire world shatter. She couldn't speak, she couldn't hold back the expression of pure shock, and his grin sparked an urge, a primal, instinct-driven urge, to grab his arm and pull away from him! The drop from the cliff no longer concerned her!

"I need you to do something for me, my dear lab assistant," he began, steadily pulling her to himself. Her attempts at freeing herself from his grasp only seemed to amuse him. He even giggled!

"Stop!" Jade shouted after finally finding her voice. Naraku's smile disappeared, but he didn't look angry; just disappointed. After a moment of silence, he raised an eyebrow.

"Have it your way," and he shoved her off the cliff with both hands. The force was enough to guarantee that she wouldn't be able to reach anything to save herself. She couldn't even scream.

A loud splash.

A coldness so overwhelming it soaked even her bones.

Everything went black.


	26. Two Minds, One Heart

**Two Minds, One Heart**

"So, where did you go last night?" Sango asked once she was buckled in. Jade looked over at her and frowned.

"Nowhere." she answered.

"Nah, you left. I heard the door and I heard your car." Sango pressed.

"No, I didn't-"

"If you're screwing him, it's fine. You don't have to lie."

"Sango, you also said she was possibly going to smoke weed with Koga and the boys." Kagome stated as she leaned forward.

"Oh, yeah," Jade forced a laugh. "Sorry. I forgot."

"Are you good? To drive, I mean?" Sango continued.

"I'm fine!" Jade insisted with a smile. "I'm good."

"Alright."

 _'Oh fuuuuuuck, oh shit, did I sleepwalk? Sleepdrive?'_ Jade drove out of the parking lot and thought so hard that she was sure her brain was going to explode. _'I worked late, I came home, I slept...then I woke up this morning,'_ she listed off, thankful that Sango was preoccupied with her iPod at the moment. She went over the list again; work, home, sleep, woke up...something was missing. She felt it. There was a gap, but it was fuzzy. Her body began to tremble as if it remembered something she didn't. _'Lucy and Naraku said I did do that, though.'_

Jade tried to pay attention to the chatter of her two roommates, but she couldn't. Their voices almost sounded muffled, like she was hearing them underwater. She also had to snap herself out of trances. She had experienced highway hypnosis before, but it was usually at night and when she was tired. She couldn't roll the window down to use the cold air to snap her out of it because they would suspect her of still being under the influence of weed that she never smoked.

 _'I wonder what Naraku is up to?'_ She inhaled deeply. _'Reading, writing, pissing off Bruce, extracting precious metals from chemicals to pawn for profit, grafting more heart tissue on spinach leaves,'_

"Jade!" Sango barked.

"What?" Jade asked, glancing over at her.

"You're acting weird."

"No, I'm just...after I smoke, I'm super relaxed the next day."

"We were asking you what you're going to do over break?" Kagome chirped.

"Oh, uh, finish up some last minute lab stu- his dick, Sango! Better?" Jade snapped with a smile after she heard her friend snicker, but she was actually irritated. She had no memory of leaving, and she didn't think Sango was lying, but a part of Sango was still convinced Jade was sleeping with Naraku and it was a common joke that Jade was starting to grow tired of. "Then I'll probably go home for a couple of weeks, eat, sleep, the usual, and then I'll be back a week early for pizza stuff."

"Sounds good." Kagome answered. "I'm ready to taste my mom's cooking again."

"I can't wait to hear more of my dad's crazy stories from work." Sango added.

"Oh yeah?"

Jade zoned out again. She began thinking that seeing a doctor for memory issues was a good idea, but the last doctor she saw insisted that memory loss connected with trauma and comas were common and that it was also possible for the problems to persist even years after the trauma. She agreed, but sleepwalking and driving? That was dangerous! To add to her anxiety, she apparently had another nosebleed during the night; a stain was left on her pillow and she had dried blood caked to her face. It wasn't a small amount, either.

 _'Maybe Naraku has ideas,'_ Jade nodded slightly and wondered why she even thought confiding in him with such a personal, emotional problem was a good idea. Physical? Sure. He was actually spot-on most of the time. Anything centered around emotions and mental concerns? He was the poster-child of mental and emotional issues developing intelligence, a consciousness, and manifesting a physical form. He would observe everything she did in her sleepwalking state and in the name of science, he would not intervene, even if she was in danger. Still, though, she liked being around him for various reasons. _'Why am I thinking so much about him right now?'_ she wondered. Was she getting sick again? She felt fine and not fine at the same time - her body stuck in danger mode and her mind was stuck in a haze. ' _He would know a remedy...god-fucking-damn it.'_ Was she even in control of her brain anymore? Everything she was doing felt...automated. Somehow, she hadn't crashed, or rear-ended anyone, ran a light; her body was doing everything it was supposed to do. Her mind, on the other hand, was floating around in space.

Jade's hugs and goodbyes to her roommates felt empty on her end, which made her feel terrible. They were her friends; she was going to miss them. Her mind had other plans, though. "Get back in the car," it seemed to say. "Drive back faster." It reached a point that she began whispering, "I'm going," over and over to herself, as if it would calm her down.

When she checked her phone, she was shocked to see that Naraku and Bruce had called her multiple times. Sesshomaru sent a single text saying, "You should probably answer your phone sometime soon. Lives might be at stake." She snorted, thinking he was being sarcastic, but listened to the voicemail Naraku left her first and she closed her eyes as chills wracked her body; Sesshomaru was serious.

"Jade, I don't even- just call me as soon as you hear this." Naraku sounded defeated. His tone was soft, but not in a good way, and it sounded hoarse.

"Holy shit, so, I need you to come into the lab as soon as possible. Campus lost power last night, all of it, including the generators, and now any temperature-sensitive samples we have are either ruined or nearly-ruined and we need help saving as much as we can. As for Naraku's samples...I would really like to have you here before he shows up. He might actually murder someone. Please, hurry." Bruce's first voicemail made Jade's mouth drop open. She almost didn't want to play the second one...but she had to. She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing.

"Okaaaaaay, so he got here before you did and…" Bruce's voice tailed off and in the background, Jade could hear Naraku screaming. Not shouting, not raising his voice; legitimately screaming like he was in immense pain. She heard glass shattering, a loud crunching sound, and Naraku's voice finally forming words, Japanese ones, which was even more concerning. "Yeah, so, please get here soon. Or call him if you don't feel safe. Or don't. I don't blame you."

 _'Fuck me, it's Colorado all over again, maybe worse,'_ she groaned. Maybe that was why she was constantly thinking about Naraku on the way to the airport; his rage must have sent shock-waves hundreds of miles out. She called his phone and prepared herself.

"Where are you?" he asked sharply.

"I had to take Sango and Kagome to the airport. What happened?" Jade started her car, hoping the heat would push the chills from her body. "Naraku? What happened?"

"Get here as soon as you can."

"Naraku-" Jade heard some rustling and then silence. He had ended the call. "Asshole."

Jade took the backroads back to the city, speeding when she could to help trim time. They might not have given details, but she could solve puzzles well enough. Bruce implied something was wrong with Naraku's samples, which made sense. That would be the only reason Naraku would lose control of himself like that.

She pulled into the parking lot behind the building and briskly walked inside, nodding to professors and maintenance workers as she made her way to the lab. When she spotted Bruce standing outside of the lab, she walked up to him first. He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her.

"Oh good," he smiled uncomfortably.

"What happened?" Jade asked, feeling like she had asked that a thousand times already.

"Naraku's samples are ruined."

"But, none of them were temp-sensitive. They should've survived the-"

"Ooooh no, this was deliberate." Bruce interrupted while cringing and massaging his temples. "And Sesshomaru didn't do it."

"I assume the cameras didn't record?"

"Not unless this person did it before the outage. We won't find out until everything is up and running again."

"Where is he?"

"In the lab."

"Okay. I'll go-"

"Maaaaaybe you shouldn't."

"I just talked to him a half-hour ago. He said he wanted me here. You said you wanted me here."

"Naraku thirty minutes ago is not Naraku now." Bruce replied grimly.

"I know, but he asked, so," Jade walked over to the door, but stopped when she heard...laughing? He was laughing? The trembling returned to her body.

 _'If he isn't suffering psychosis this time around, he's a tougher son of a bitch than I thought.'_ Inhaling deeply and holding her breath for a moment before pushing the door open, Jade silenced all thoughts. The smell hit her first; decomposing biological material had a sewage smell to it and since most of Naraku's samples were raw biological material from the bottom of a lake, it also had a slight rotten fish aroma to it. Every individual bag holding half a centimeter of material had been unraveled and dumped onto the floor. She assumed the excessive amount of water on the floor were his water samples, too. She walked past the table where Naraku lay on his back on the floor, sprawled out and still giggling like a schoolgirl. His white lab coat, blue shirt, and jeans were turning brown from soaking up the silty material from the floor and his long, wavy black hair was caught in the mess, too.

"Hey," Jade called out, standing beside him and looking down at him. His gaze met hers and he smiled.

"Hello, Jade."

"You, uh, you doing okay down there?"

"I'm doing fantastic, Jade. I've never felt better," he insisted with an innocent smile.

"Uh huh," she replied while crossing her arms. She could only imagine what was going on inside his head. It was at that moment she recognized the wide streaks around his arms and legs; he made a mud angel at some point. She fought to hold back a laugh.

 _'This isn't funny, this isn't funny, this isn't funny,'_

"No, really, I'm fine."

"Okay, I won't argue. Just, uh, why don't we get off the floor?" Jade suggested as she offered him her hand. Naraku tossed his arm up, acting as if it was heavy, even grunting while doing so, and when Jade pulled, he swept his leg to the side and knocked her off her feet. She gasped and twisted to her side, holding her head protectively as she struck the filthy, moist floor harshly.

"Hahahahaha!" Naraku erupted into laughter again, acting as if it was the funniest thing he ever watched in his life. "You- hahaha, you said, "we," so I figured we could get up together!"

 _'Just play along, don't show him anything, just go with it,'_ Jade coached herself as she lowered her arms from her face. As she expected, his eyes were searching for any displeasure, but she was able to keep it neutral.

"You know," he began, reaching over to brush her hair from her face. "It had to be someone with a key to the lab."

"The door wasn't unlocked or left open on accident was it?" she quizzed.

"Nooooooo," he sang teasingly. His handsome smile was making her nauseous...or was it the smell of his ruined life smeared all over the floor?

"The lock wasn't picked?"

"Hm, I haven't checked," he looked up thoughtfully, but when he looked back at Jade, she could tell that he was mocking her...and becoming visibly angry. The hair stood up on the back of her neck.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, Jade. How about you come up with a plan for once?"

"Okaaaaay," she tried not to roll her eyes or sigh heavily. Now he was going to start negging her and doing anything he could for a reaction. "I guess I'll start cleaning. You can...do whatever."

"No, your plan needs to involve both of us. Tell me what to do."

"Naraku, you and I both know what you're going to do if I do," Jade pushed herself up onto her knees and winced when she felt a stinging sensation along her side, her legs, and her hands.

 _'Peroxide,'_ she remembered when she saw the chalky-white residue building on her skin. Luckily, it had been diluted. Otherwise, it would have been far more painful.

"Do you hate me now?"

"No." Jade said quickly, standing up and offering him her hand again. "How about I take you home instead?"

"Why can't I drive myself?"

"I'm just trying to be nice to you."

"Well, stop it."

"Okay." Jade dropped her hand to her side and walked away.

"Where are you going?"

"My apartment. I'm going to pack and go home early."

"What?" he sat up quickly. "You said you were going to stay for a few more days."

"Yeah, for lab stuff." Jade retorted, waving her hand from one side of the lab to the other. "I don't really have stuff to do anymore, thanks to some asshole,"

"Don't leave." he urged, now standing.

 _'I've never wanted to punch someone in the dick so much,'_ Jade held her breath, looking back at him. His sleeve brushed against his cheek quickly before his hand dropped to his side. _'Was that...is he crying?'_

"Look, are you okay to drive home?" Jade urged softly. He kept his gaze downward, but he nodded. "Cool. So, go home and clean up. I'll do the same and then I'll come over and fix chili pepper tea. How about that plan?"

"I suppose it's fine."

Jade walked out of the lab and approached Bruce, whose eyes widened when he saw the brown smears on her clothes.

"What did he-"

"I slipped." Jade lied quickly, waving her hands. "He's going to go home, and then I'm going to...um,"

"Babysit?"

"Sure. I mean, I'm actually kind of worried about him."

"Same and I don't even like him." Bruce sighed heavily. "Well, because we don't know what all is mixed on the floor in there, the department has decided to call in professionals to deal with the mess. I won't tell them that Naraku decided to make fucking mud angels and that you slipped, so just shower as soon as you can so we don't have to file reports. Please."

"Yup!"

When Jade finished showering and dressing, she grabbed her Xbox and controllers, drove to the store to buy the ingredients for her promised tea, and then headed to Naraku's apartment. She hoped he actually did what she suggested. She sighed with relief when she saw his new shiny black car sitting right up front...in a handicap spot...with a blue handicap tag hanging from his rearview mirror.

 _'Never change, Naraku.'_ She couldn't help but to snicker and shake her head. She didn't mean to laugh at something that was probably a symptom of severe mental illness, but she also knew that he was fully aware of what he was doing.

A low whistle squeezed through her lips as she walked by his car to inspect it. _'A muscle car for a muscle-obsessed guy,'_ she noted. She wasn't sure if Chargers counted as muscle cars or not, but they were close enough in her opinion.

"Oh," Jade flinched when Naraku answered the door with nothing but a towel around his waist and another wrapped around his hair on his head. "I could've waited."

"You've seen me naked before." Naraku answered decidedly. "Haven't we discussed this already?"

"Yup and you're still purposely avoiding the point."

"Oh?" he spun around to walk away and Jade froze when she saw the massive spider tattoo on his back. It was clearly Japanese-inspired and densely detailed. Its legs were sectioned and came to sharp points at each end and even the hairs on its legs were identifiable. Its abdomen and its patterns also took the form of an oni's face. The spider was mainly black and dark gray with red highlights. He also had fresh red blotches on his back and the backs of his arms and legs from laying in the peroxide for so long.

"Have you always had that tattoo?"

"Always? No. Since before I met you? Yes."

"Why have I never seen it?"

"Probably because of my hair,"

"Makes sense," Jade replied, placing her Xbox down on his coffee table beside his discarded keys before striding into his kitchen to begin boiling the tea.

"Hey," Naraku called out, peering out from his bedroom. "Don't start making it yet. I want to watch."

"No, fuck you! It's my recipe!" she shot back jokingly, waiting for him to finish dressing before doing her thing.

Naraku stood behind her quietly, peering over her shoulder, carefully eyeing how much of each ingredient she used, and occasionally misplacing them to force her to put extra effort in for his amusement. Jade let it go, knowing that Lucy and Sango would be disgusted by it. But she wasn't. She didn't have a huge sense of pride over herself. She knew what she was capable of and no one could take that from her. If Naraku needed to cut her down to make himself feel better, that said more about him than her.

"Okay, it should be done in a couple of minutes," Jade sighed. Naraku nodded, but kept his gaze aimed at the floor. "I brought my Xbox, too, if you're wanting to try any stuff out."

"I think I would prefer watching you play."

"Sure!" she chirped with a smile.

Once the tea was finished, Naraku scooped up his guinea pig and joined Jade on his couch while cradling the pig on his chest. After a minute of Naraku scratching his ears, the guinea pig crawled up to his neck and snuggled.

 _'Doesn't care my ass.'_ Jade shook her head. Her thoughts turned back to the lab. _'Who would've done that?'_ Another thought surfaced in her head, one that she had been ignoring most of the afternoon; if she left the apartment while sleepwalking, did she trash Naraku's samples? _'But why would I? I've been working on them, too.'_ Was it even possible? Sleepwalking was a thing, but was it possible to be so specific and destructive? _'I'll have to read up on it. If I ask Naraku, he might get suspicious. He's pissed a lot of people off, though. It's probably a coincidence.'_

"Jade," Naraku's voice was gentle. He exhaled heavily while closing his eyes.

"Hm?"

"Thank...you." he said slowly while he fidgeted in place. "For dealing with me, I mean."

"That's what friends do. If you ever need to talk or scowl angrily in the presence of someone else, you can trust me." she replied, pointing to herself. She was trying not to visibly celebrate the fact that he thanked her! Without a smart-ass comment!

"Friend," he repeated, almost sounding it out. "Do you truly think of me as a friend?"

"Yeah, you're my friend."

"You have low standards."

"No, I just...I don't know. Can you just accept that you're my friend without turning it into a psych evaluation?"

"I need to understand it to accept it."

"Okay," Jade dropped her controller into her lap. "What do you want? A list of good qualities?"

"I have good qualities?" he chuckled mockingly, holding the pig up to examine his belly and feet.

"You love science, you always show me cool stuff, you helped me with my homework all semester, you taught me useful skills, you helped me with my cuts, you got high with me, you got drunk with me, you take good care of little Dab over there, you stopped me from jumping off a building, and most of all, you make me laugh."

"Those outweigh the bad qualities?"

"I think so."

"No one else does."

"I don't care what anyone else thinks. It's my decision, not theirs. If they don't want to deal with your bad qualities, fine. But I do because I like you. Is that okay?"

"Yes," Naraku was now staring at her with a shocked expression on his face. The guinea pig was cradled against his chest again and was squeaking contently. "What if I don't like you?"

"Then I'm stupid, I guess." Jade picked her controller up from her lap and began scrolling through the list of games she had. At least she received an untainted thank-you. If he was going to deny liking her, that was his problem. She landed on Nioh and pointed at the screen. "This one is kind of like Dark Souls, but in Japan with a bunch of demons,"

"Yokai," he corrected.

"Whatever. It's weeaboo bait, but it's actually a good game." Jade declared, choosing to start a new game.

"It stars a white, European man; classic."

"At least it isn't Tom Cruise. I'm pretty sure a bunch of Japanese people wrote the story and made the game, so blame them. They even go by a pretty stereotypical developer name of, "Team Ninja." So yeah."

"Self-aware?"

"Definitely. They know what they're doing."

"You do know that you're smart, right?"

"I'm- what?" the statement came from nowhere and Jade didn't know how to react.

"You are smart." he stated simply.

"I think I'm average,"

"I've seen average; you're miles above it."

"Oh," Jade smiled. "Thanks, dude."

"I do like you a little bit."

"Just a little?" she repeated. It was a shitty confession, a Naraku-esque confession, but a confession nonetheless! Progress was progress!

"If I could choose only one other person to survive the apocalypse besides me, I would certainly think about you the most."

"Aw, thank you. Who is second?"

"Sesshomaru; I need someone to beat to death if I can't have someone I like a little bit."

 **000000**

 _'Hm?'_ Naraku opened his eyes when he heard a young girl's laughter. She was running through the meadow with a wide smile on her face and her black, wavy hair pulled back into a messy bun. She breezed past Naraku, looking back when another voice called out.

"Kagura!" the boy shouted. "Give it back!"

 _'It's me. I remember this.'_ As the memory filled his head, its moments played out before him.

"I just wanted to look at it!" she argued.

"It isn't yours!"

"It obviously isn't yours, either!" Kagura laughed, scrambling onto a boulder that was partially submerged in the stream.

"Yes it is!"

"There's no way someone asked you to the dance," his sister said sharply. She held the sealed card out to the side. "If you come any closer, I'll drop it!"

"Give. It. Back." Naraku demanded icily.

"I just want to read it. Mother said you have to share with me."

"You're going to the dance, too! You're going to find out anyway!"

"So, what's the big deal if I find out now?"

"I haven't even opened it yet! Why should you get to see it first when it's addressed to me?"

"Oops," Kagura gasped after she broke the seal. "I guess I should just go ahead and- ow! Naraku!" his sister cried out after the rock he threw struck her shoulder harshly.

"Give it back."

"I'm telling Mother!"

"I'll tell her for you. I don't care." Naraku huffed as he crossed his arms.

"I'll read it anyway!" Kagura opened the card and her wicked smile disappeared. "What is this?"

"An invitation?"

"It doesn't look like your handwriting. What a bust." Kagura jumped down from the boulder and shoved the card into her brother's chest before running away.

"Insufferable." Naraku whispered under his breath as he opened the card to read it.

 _ **'I assume your sister will steal this copy, so joke's on her if she did. I'll give you the real one in person.'**_

"Heh," he snorted as he held it against his chest.

The sunlight woke him from his sleep and he sighed.

 _'Kikyou was the one who asked me. I almost turned her down.'_ Naraku remembered with a smirk.

He stretched his arms up and walked out into the living room, spotting Jade sitting up and leaning forward on his couch. She had tissues held to her nose and an irritated expression etched onto her face.

"Nosebleed?" he asked.

"Yeah," she huffed. "I got a little on your couch. I'm sorry. I was asleep."

"I know how to remove it."

"Okay. I'll leave when it stops."

"You won't stay for breakfast?"

"You're offering breakfast?"

After they finished eating, Naraku got dressed and walked with Jade out to the parking lot. He waited until she got in her car before backing out and pulling up behind her car to delay her. It took a few minutes, but she finally held her middle finger up. Naraku snorted and drove away to return to campus.

 _'Laptop, binder, throw out the broken lamp, check on my abomination of nature,'_ Naraku listed off in his head as he walked to the building. He wasn't as angry about his ruined samples as he thought he should be and that annoyed him. He had the answer to his question from Colorado, though; Jade really did make him feel better. She wasn't overbearing, constantly pushing her feelings on him - she was just there. That was yet another difference between Kikyou and Jade. Kikyou meant well, but she often pressured him to accept her pity, her help, and her feelings. Jade rarely tried and when she did, she backed off when told to. _'She said I had good qualities; no one has ever told me that, let alone listed any of them. I didn't know those counted.'_

When he reached his office, he left the door open. Campus was nearly empty; winter break had begun. He didn't plan on staying long, anyway. Even he had a limit and he pushed beyond it the previous day.

"Hm?" Something caught his eye; something out of place. He stole a storage cabinet from the basement level of the building to hide the crystal heart in, but there were three empty glass tubes sitting on top of it. A wooden tube holder was knocked on its side. A few small drops of red liquid pooled between them. Corks had been dropped on the floor. Smaller red droplets were scattered around the corks, too. Naraku's chest tightened as his blood turned ice-cold. "No, it can't be," he whispered. He almost jumped to the cabinet, picking up the tubes and spotting the labels on the sides; blood types written in his handwriting - his and Jade's blood types.

 _'How? How did these get here? They were in my desk at my apartment!'_ Naraku closed his eyes, trying to remember if, for any reason, he brought them to campus and forgot. He already knew the answer, but the answer to how they ended up there and empty was one he didn't want to think about...it couldn't be possible…the droplets of blood...from her nose...she had no idea they existed! How could she? _'Why bring them here? Why not confront me about them? Did she just do this as a prank?'_ He opened the wooden cabinet and received his answer; it was no prank.

The crystal heart was now a crystal box. The entire interior of the plexiglass case was covered in pink crystals. Their translucent property allowed him to see the dark purple center, which continued beating.

"It wasn't like this yesterday! It...yesterday! Jade!" he closed his eyes and swallowed hard, feeling the nausea building up. "She did it! She destroyed my- why? Was it you?" Naraku grit his teeth, now glaring at the crystallized case in his hands. Her nosebleed, the trance she was put under a couple of weeks ago; it was practicing!

 _'I have lost everything! My samples, my solutions, and now Jade is-'_

"You can't have her!" he snapped, slamming the case into the floor with all his might and fury.

An invisible force washed over him like slime and made him stumble backward. The air thickened and every movement, every breath, took more effort than the last. It was stronger than the time before; much stronger! He heard buzzing and popping noises as the room and hallway grew dark. His desk lamp flickered before turning off and when he checked his phone, the device shut down and showed a final message saying the battery was dead. Naraku inched over to his window and looked out; the lamps along the main sidewalks were off and so were all the lights in the neighboring science building.

 _'It hasn't been faulty wiring at all.'_ The realization hit him like a truck. As the heart laid dormant to recover its energy, it emitted EMP waves. _'Was it protecting itself just now? Showing off? Did it call to Jade?'_ A sudden cough wracked his body and brought him to his knees. Blood covered the palm of his hand from covering his mouth. He could feel his body relaxing, his eyes starting to close…

"Fuck...you!" Naraku grunted, forcing himself back to his feet and sprinting out of the room. He made it to the staircase before falling to his knees again. That was it? All that time and effort spent building up his body and stamina and that was all he could manage?

 _'I can't call...phone died,'_ He forced out a laugh. So, the abomination was sentient? He threatened it, it killed his access to help, and now, it seemed it wanted to kill him. No one would know for weeks.

"You look so sick," her voice sounded sickeningly sweet. "What did you do this time?"

"Y-You're not real!" Naraku shouted, falling onto his side. It was Kikyou! It always came back to Kikyou! Would he never be free from it? His body trembled with weakness, with fear, and with shock.

 _'It has been affecting me the whole time,'_

"You poor thing," her hand stroked his arm. The pressure, the warmth; it felt so real!

 _'All of my dreams, my hallucinations, my fatigue,'_

"You have a gentle side, Naraku. I've seen it. Next time," she paused to kiss his cheek and then whispered into his ear. "Use it."


End file.
